MLB 2015 Season Thread

jack presley

circular flexing wrote: »

Have to say that I'm not the biggest fan of bat flipping in general and I thought Bautista's was way over the top. I get that it's showboating and that the fans like to see it, but I much prefer the players that show a bit of humility.

I take it you won't be interested in buying either of the bat flipping Tshirts from here then?

http://breakingt.com/collections/mlb

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman

jack presley wrote: »

The funny thing is that Murph is known for making poor decisions when running the bases and has been put out numerous times after getting caught in no-man's land. Blind squirrel and all that.....!!!!

Seriously though, I love Murph and it'll be sad seeing him play somewhere else next season (probably)

I think the Mets keep him because of sentiment and I think he will take a pay cut to stay .. some pitching staff there right now

And none of the starters for the mets earned more than 600k this year .. so funny!

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman

jack presley wrote: »

ALCS starts tonight. Who'd you reckon wins? Estrada up against Volquez in Game 1. Fairly evenly matched I'd say.

I wonder what kind of weird play we'll get in this one.

Estrada has been brilliant for the Blue Jays. I think they have a serious advantage in this one.

zuutroy

Jose on his way home after the game the other night!

Igotadose

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman wrote: »

I think the Mets keep him because of sentiment and I think he will take a pay cut to stay .. some pitching staff there right now

And none of the starters for the mets earned more than 600k this year .. so funny!

Signing Murphy is a tough question to answer. He'll command good money, and he makes *so* many bad plays - I mean, you can put some of the blame for Tejada's leg fracture on the throw (it wasn't a great throw at all.) Of course, Slutley is to blame.

Murphy's having a great postseason. If he's not signed, Flores becomes the SS and Herrera the 2b in some combo, which frankly isn't as inspiring as Murphy/Flores might have been. Tejada's likely gone - 2d leg break, won't be tendered a contract, so back to 'needing a shortstop' at the start of the season.

Also, having Murphy around means he can spell Wright, who is hurt a lot.

I dunno, the bad plays really do gripe me. The great plays are exciting too. Just always find myself holding my breath when Murphy's on defense....

First priority is to sign Cespedes. Then maybe Murphy walks, and the team gets a drop off in offense from 2b but possibly a defensive upgrade, which matters to a team with such dominant pitching.

But, Murphy's a Met till the end of the WS, so lets not worry about Murphy till after that! And if he's got a ring with the Mets, maybe he *will* take a little less to play in NYC (he'd be crazy to, in my opinion, they're not elite athletes for very long and it really is about the money...)

Mars Bar

Eh...

Mars Bar

Eh...

jack presley

Bit of a weird strike zone last night. I don't know was it consistent for both teams but from the brief highlights I watched, the BJs weren't happy with it anyway.

krustydoyle

Greinke has decided to opt out and test free agency..

Interesting..

Waitsian

krustydoyle wrote:

Greinke has decided to opt out and test free agency..

I can see Toronto being in on him. A lot of money is coming off the books this winter and they'll need SPs.

Waitsian

Wow, Price meltdown and the inning started on a really bad error. Yikes!

Igotadose

Why do teams still run on Cespedes? Out by a mile. And Murphy keeps doing his thing... One win down, 7 more to go!

Igotadose

Met fans find this hilarious: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/edited-chase-utley-wikipedia-page-article-1.2400475

Bus Boy

Very good. Is it midnight tonight again?

circular flexing

Bus Boy wrote: »

Very good. Is it midnight tonight again?

8pm eastern time so 1am Irish time.

SantryRed

Jake Arietta on the mound for the Cubs tonight. Fully rested so I'm expecting a perfect game from him

Bus Boy

circular flexing wrote: »

8pm eastern time so 1am Irish time.

Thanks

lambayire

SantryRed wrote: »

Jake Arietta on the mound for the Cubs tonight. Fully rested so I'm expecting a perfect game from him

Well, thankfully, that didn't happen

Igotadose

Murphy's homered off of Greinke, Kershaw, now Arrieta... just crazy, esp. the one off Arrieta, which followed a foul home run.

Love Niese striking out Rizzo, highlight for me as a long-time Niese fan, poor guy's suffered through so many bad teams and now with a great, bordering on legendary team, he's relegated to the pen in favor of unproven, oft-injured Matz.

Huge games @ Wrigley. I expect the series'll end there, Cubs get one.

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman

Both series going away with the home side leading 2-0 with regards to the -
AL- I think the Blue Jays need to get at Cueto tonight or they are going to be in a hole they cant climb out of , I have my doubts whether the Blue Jays can win this series though as Kansas just have so many more ways to win.

NL - This one is different for me. Going back to Wrigley having not played well at all in the first two games I think the Cubs can get themselves out of this hole. They need to win against De Gromme which will be tough but if they can do that Matz and Harvey are not as formidable .. Could come back to NY 3-2 up. If these Cubs have shown anything this season they have shown resilience. Still I think Pitching wins these series and the Mets have an abundance of it. up in the air on this series though don't know who comes through.

Waitsian

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman wrote:

Both series going away with the home side leading 2-0 with regards to the - AL- I think the Blue Jays need to get at Cueto tonight or they are going to be in a hole they cant climb out of , I have my doubts whether the Blue Jays can win this series though as Kansas just have so many more ways to win.

The way I see it is if the Jays take all three in Toronto they can take one in KC; if they only take 2 and are 3-2 down going back to Missouri it's all over. Of course if KC take 2 in Toronto it is over!!

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman

mod9maple wrote: »

The way I see it is if the Jays take all three in Toronto they can take one in KC; if they only take 2 and are 3-2 down going back to Missouri it's all over. Of course if KC take 2 in Toronto it is over!!

You'll need the bats to get hot again, Kansas are playing like the team that got to the WS again as well . Real belief in that squad I think your boys are going to struggle to win 3 in Toronto but who knows with that crazy atmosphere at home anything is possible.

jack presley

Must win game 3s for Toronto and Chicago now. I know Boston came back and beat the Yankees in '04 and there are probably a few other times this happened but getting in an 0-3 hole would of be very hard to get out of.

I know the Mets pitching has kept the Cubs hitting in check so far but there's talk that they'll get going once in their home field but the Mets hitters (Daniel Murphy apart) haven't really got going either and Hendricks and Hammel (or Lester on short rest) are hittable too so they have some runs to score too.

Obviously I'm happy how it's gone so far and just hope de Grom pitches better than he did last time and isn't required to continually get himself out of trouble.

Getting a win with Cueto on the mound is going to be tough for Toronto too, especially if he's now back in the groove which he seemed to be last time out.

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman

jack presley wrote: »

Must win game 3s for Toronto and Chicago now. I know Boston came back and beat the Yankees in '04 and there are probably a few other times this happened but getting in an 0-3 hole would of be very hard to get out of.

I know the Mets pitching has kept the Cubs hitting in check so far but there's talk that they'll get going once in their home field but the Mets hitters (Daniel Murphy apart) haven't really got going either and Hendricks and Hammel (or Lester on short rest) are hittable too so they have some runs to score too.

Obviously I'm happy how it's gone so far and just hope de Grom pitches better than he did last time and isn't required to continually get himself out of trouble.

Getting a win with Cueto on the mound is going to be tough for Toronto too, especially if he's now back in the groove which he seemed to be last time out.

Agree Cueto when he's on is very hard to hit, but the crowd atmosphere in Toronto has been immense so they could get to him, he's an emotional pitcher as well so if they do get a hit or two early ... who knows.

Fair play to the Mets, Murphy has been unreal hitting wise. Arrieta struggled last night but like you say De Grom struggled a little last time out too. I think this will come down to the Cubs young bats, with the exception of Schwarber none of them have hit well. They need Bryant, Rizzo and Castro to get going but the Mets have silenced them so far.

Two really evenly balanced Series right now, so it will be interesting to see if the shift in stadium's shifts the momentum.

snow scorpion

jack presley

http://twitter.com/SI_BenReiter/status/655900076485824512/photo/1

Lirange

Great leaping catch by Granderson to rob Coghlan of a homer last night.

Igotadose

These next 2 games are obviously critical to the Cubs. I expect an offensive explosion on both sides. Cold, Windy Wrigley. Tonight it's Matz for the Mets and some ham-n-egger for the Cubs. Might be good to see Cespedes launch a few. Watch out on Waveland avenue!

And, C'mon Blue Jays! Get it together!

jack presley

jack presley wrote: »

Getting a win with Cueto on the mound is going to be tough for Toronto too, especially if he's now back in the groove which he seemed to be last time out.

Good to see I'm as good as ever with predictions!

Doodah7

Vital for the Cubs this evening. Lose tonight and I see no way back from 3-0 down. Hendricks is a steady if not spectacular pitcher. What's interesting about the playoffs is the effect the crowd have on the players. I would expect Wrigley to be fairly lively this evening, particularly if the Cubs get off to an early lead.

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman

jack presley wrote: »

Good to see I'm as good as ever with predictions!

Crowd got to him last night and th bats butchered him, Blue Jays were due an explosion in fairness! :D

Great set up now for that series. Hope the Cubs do similar tonight as a viewer ..but as a man with money on the Mets Go MATZ!

Waitsian

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman wrote:

Crowd got to him last night and th bats butchered him, Blue Jays were due an explosion in fairness!

One game at a time. One down, two to go and then all the pressure is on KC not to lose the series at home.

RA next, pitching tonite - let's hope he can baffle their hitters with that knuckleball. I'm loving the 9 pm BST start time.

The Reservoir Dubs Anchorman

mod9maple wrote: »

One game at a time. One down, two to go and then all the pressure is on KC not to lose the series at home.

RA next, pitching tonite - let's hope he can baffle their hitters with that knuckleball. I'm loving the 9 pm BST start time.

Absolutely one at a time.

jack presley

I was feeling pretty good about having de Grom going tonight as he's the Mets best pitcher but I just read that he's 0-2 with a 6.1 era this year against the Cubs and has a 7.2 era in Wrigley in 2 starts. So now I'm a bit worried again....

circular flexing

Dickey in all kinds of trouble right now.

MoyVilla9

Blues Jays in a major hole. I know they're struggling at home right now, but I do think that they will regret not going harder for home field advantage at the end of the regular season.

jack presley

I hate seeing Dickey like this. When he doesn't have it, it just looks awful for him. How long's the leash?

circular flexing

jack presley wrote: »

How long's the leash?

1 2/3 innings.

Benimar

jack presley wrote: »

I hate seeing Dickey like this. When he doesn't have it, it just looks awful for him. How long's the leash?

Not very long. Pulled after 1 2/3

MoyVilla9

jack presley wrote: »

I hate seeing Dickey like this. When he doesn't have it, it just looks awful for him. How long's the leash?

It cannot be long. Lose this and I cannot see them coming back. 5 runs is okay with the lineup that the Blue Jays have, but anymore....

... And as I type he is pulled from the game. Right decision.

krustydoyle

And that's Dickeys night

Ouch

jack presley

If there's one team that can turn around a 5 run deficit it's Toronto. This game isn't over yet.

MoyVilla9

I hate how the Blue Jays run off the field during replay reviews. Let the umpire make the call, and then go. Basically the same as waving an imaginary yellow card in football.

Waitsian

jack presley wrote:

If there's one team that can turn around a 5 run deficit it's Toronto. This game isn't over yet.

Running out of innings. Pitching will be their downfall in the end. As well as the fact that the Royals just look a better team in all areas - hitting, defense, bullpen and the starting rotation.

Sometimes you just have to doff your cap and credit the other team being better!

Waitsian

14 - 2. Not good.

Estrada now needs to pitch like he has all year. Win tomorrow and who knows. If they do Price needs to earn his corn. Win that and its all down to one game, and with Stroman pitching who knows? Big ask though.

Doubtful Hawkins is seen again. Dickey might come out of the Pen I suppose, if needed. Have to win the next game anyway or it's all moot.

snow scorpion

NY: Knock, knock!

Chi: Who's there?

NY: Eoin!

Chi: Eoin who?

NY: 0-3!

Igotadose

3-0. Wow. Eventual winning run scores on a strikeout/wild pitch. Big bad rookie Schwarber makes a Little League error, clank city.

All good. One more to get, then bring on the World Series! WOOOHOOO!!!!

krustydoyle

The old baseball romantic in me wanted the Cubs to go well and it's not because I'm a yankees fan either.. But the Mets look very very good..

Should be an exciting world series for the neutral fan

Waitsian

krustydoyle wrote:

Should be an exciting world series for the neutral fan

I'm calling it now - Jays, Cubs WS!!

Waitsian

mod9maple wrote:

I'm calling it now - Jays, Cubs WS!!

I'm not a betting man so I honestly wouldn't know where to look so could anyone please check today's odds for that actually happening? Not the odds before the two series started but as they stand today.

If I thought it was 20-1 or more I'd stick a fiver on it for the craic. You never know!