MLB 2019

[gunnar hendershow]

The worst job in America is Nationals reliever because no matter how good you are before as soon as you get there you dissolve into dust.

[The Buscher]

Bullpen woes aside, the Nats are super lucky.  Lose Harper and now they have Juan Soto who might be even better.

[Gabriel]

Apparently, the Jays couldn't find any takers for Freddy Galvis before the deadline, even just for a middling prospect, so they put him through waivers to clear up more playing time for Bichette and Biggio... and Galvis, who is having a career-year at the plate, was selected off waivers by the Reds.

On the one hand, it really sucks to lose a 29 year old veteran that's been contributing the way that Galvis has this year. On the other, by losing him through waivers, the Reds are now on the hook for his full value through the rest of the season and the contract option/$1 million buyout. It's a move that stings a bit, but hopefully clearing up that money means that the Jays will re-invest it in pitching come the off-season.

The offense has proven that they are formidable, even at their young age, so it should be priority number one at this point to bring in pitching. I'm not saying they should hand out $100+ million this off-season, but there's absolutely no reason for them at this point to not be kicking tires on younger arms through potential trades or finding those guys in free agency who are good enough now, and young enough to continue to grow with the team.

If they can sort out the pitching this off-season, with the offense that we have already, there's no reason why we can't be aiming for wild card contention as early as next season. More likely though, they hand out a couple of one year deals to guys who probably won't be brought back beyond the season, try to see which prospects break through, and let the team suffer through another season of mediocre to sub-average pitching.

They absolutely should not be in "win now" mode, but there's no reason beyond saving money that they shouldn't be aggressive in trying to fix their pitching situation for the beginning of next season. There will be some guys available through trade and free agency who fit what the team is looking for.

[gunnar hendershow]

Oriole fan here, what's this thing you're talking about called "pitching"? Never heard of it.

[Meacon Keaton]

1 hour ago, damsher hatfield said:

Oriole fan here, what's this thing you're talking about called "pitching"? Never heard of it.

To say the least. Gleyber Torres has 26 home runs this year. 13 of them are against Baltimore alone...

[The Buscher]

I don’t even see why they bothered playing this Yankees/Orioles series.  Just give the Yankees four wins and call it a day.

[gunnar hendershow]

The O's won the first season of the series against the Yankees. They haven't won a single game against NY since.

It's been rough. Even playing closer to the mean and winning 6 or 7 of the 19 total games would make the AL East that much more competitive.

[The Buscher]

Phillies get 75 year old Charlie Manuel out of retirement to be their hitting coach for the remainder of the season.

[Meacon Keaton]

My high school baseball coach died last week and I, and a few of my former teammates went and had dinner after the viewing. We got talking about how he was tough, but fair, and how he found funny ways to motivate us when he saw us starting to slack. I had completely forgot about this story, but my buddy Adam told it at the dinner:

We were in the state tournament my junior year and we were playing a conference opponent that had beaten us 14-1 and 10-0 earlier in the season. Our coach comes in and posts a lineup that doesn't look anything like our regular lineup. I was usually the #4 or #5 hitter but I was now hitting lead-off (which was adorable, because I was never fast even in my much lighter days) and a guy that actually ended up getting drafted was hitting 7th. Nobody said anything, we figured he'd give us an explanation before we headed out to the field. So we're all sitting around, waiting before the game starts and he steps out of his office and says, "Gentlemen...you may have noticed a few changes on the line-up card. We may not be the best hitting team..." and then he just walked out of the locker room and went to the field without finishing the sentence. 

We ended up losing that game 8-7, but we hit the cover off the ball at least.

[Schlitzbrille]

So I take it the Orioles are totally not playing at Geneva Convention-violation levels of bad?

[Meacon Keaton]

Oh they're atrocious. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Not as bad as the Tigers though!

[The Buscher]

Welp, as much fun as the past month has been, my fear was that since the break the Mets had simply been beating up on the worst teams in the league.  Now they've gone 2-3 against the Nats and Braves but they should be 0-5, both wins were results of the Nats bullpen completely imploding and gifting them the wins.  They've got Julio Teheran tonight who has owned them historically, and Jeff McNeil who has emerged as their most consistent offensive player is injured.

They do have the Royals this weekend, but after that it'll be the Indians, Braves again, and Cubs.  There's no point in making the playoffs if you can't beat any good teams.  And besides, this year the prize of being a Wild Card is playing a Game 163 for the right to lose to the Dodgers in the NLDS so it's whatever.

Suppose I should just be glad that they got to unexpectedly play meaningful games in August.  That's more than I can say about the last two seasons.

[MalaCloudy Black]

goddamnit, chicago

[gunnar hendershow]

Bryce Harper absolutely obliterated that ball. Wow.

It almost broke the win probability.

[GhostMachine]

Saw the..`lowlights' from a Tigers game the other night. I didn't imagine they were quite that bad!....

[gunnar hendershow]

You're welcome everyone 

 

[DMN in the House]

Pac12 basketball may suck, but we have Bill Walton and you don't!

[The Buscher]

Well Jed Lowrie still has yet to get into a game for the Mets after signing a 2-year $20 million deal but the Phillies have their own version of that going on.

David Robertson signed for 2 years, $23 million. Pitched to 5.40 ERA over 6.2 innings before getting hurt. And now months after the original injury, he will undergo TJS, effectively ending his Phillies career as he will miss 2020.

[Meacon Keaton]

I brought up to several Phillie fans when they signed Robertson that there was a staggering decline in his velocity last year and that something was obviously quite wrong, but what do I know, I've only watched the guy pitch the majority of his career. It sucks terribly for a guy I like personally, but fuck Philly.