2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[MalaCloudy Black]

Joey Votto paying tribute to Michael K. Williams with his walk-up music was cool. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Jon Heyman has been really offended by Kiermaier so I can only assume at this point what he did was totally fine.

[gunnar hendershow]

Fuck 'em up Jim!

[DMN in the House]

On 22/09/2021 at 09:38, Gabriel said:

It's total gamesmanship, and I'm cool with it until the league says otherwise.

That being said, where's the line? If the Rays had a player leave his glove on the field and a Jay picked it up and refused to give it back... is that still gamesmanship? I mean, the glove and scouting report are both league-approved tools for the players to use. If it's okay to snake one, is it okay to snake the other?

You need the glove to play the game, you don't really need the paper.

I dunno, there's definitely a line but I don't think this crosses it. This is like trying to steal signs while on second base, it falls into the part of the game between the teams off the field.

[gunnar hendershow]

😆

[Toe]

Oh wow - I thought they still would have Davis on the books, but I guess since he retired they are free from that.

[gunnar hendershow]

5 minutes ago, Toe said:

Oh wow - I thought they still would have Davis on the books, but I guess since he retired they are free from that.

They're still paying him something but he's not "on the books" in how team payroll is calculated. It doesn't go towards the luxury tax basically.

Also it's kind of misleading since a fair number of players are under team control and on their annual one-year deals and will be back. But there's basically never a team that doesn't have someone officially locked up past this season. Might be a first for a team to end a season with 0 players guaranteed to be back the following season.

[gunnar hendershow]

In positive Orioles news, Cedric Mullins now has a 30/30 season. What a year for a guy just about everyone around here had written off as a AAAA type player. Happy for him. Too bad this organization won't give him a nice contract as a reward.

[Your Mom]

Tried to watch Baseball. I love Baseball! The Cubs gave up 2 homers in like 12 seconds. Fuck Baseball

[The Buscher]

The Giants won their 100th game and the Dodgers are about to do the same.  One of those teams will be forced into a one-game playoff with a team currently 15 games worse than them in the Cardinals...and that in and of itself could've been even worse as the Cards are riding a 14-game winning streak.

I still expect that under the next they will add a best of three Wild Card round this winter.  MLB has been hesitant to do as it could push the playoff schedule out further in the event of tiebreakers, etc...but I think this is the kind of thing that will make them realize how foolish it is to play 162 games in series and then punish the team with the second best record in the league by basically putting their season on the line in a coin toss, which is all a single game really is.

I'm about 90% sure this gets added into the next CBA regardless, and I'd move it up to 95% likelihood if the top Wild Card team loses the game and 99% if it's the Dodgers.

[gunnar hendershow]

3 games all at the home stadium of the better team, thus eliminating a travel day and getting it all done in 3 total days

[The Buscher]

The Mets were in 1st place by 5 games on August 1st.  With 9 games to go they are completely eliminated from playoff contention.

What a collapse this second half was.  Same as it always is with this sad sack organization. 

[The Buscher]

Mets beat writer Anthony DiComo comes up with yet another stat to quantify how bad this second half was for the Mets.  No team in the history of baseball has spent more time in first place (103 days) only to finish with a losing record.

After this disaster I'm not really sure there's anything they can do this winter to make me excited about 2022.  Even if they make all the "right" moves and have a good team on paper...that's done a fat lot of good the last several times they assembled a good team on paper.  It invariably finds a way to not work out, sorta like the Padres.

[MalaCloudy Black]

So what's everyone's playoff predictions? I think the WS is going to be Dodgers/Rays.

[gunnar hendershow]

If they can make it through the wild card game I'm gonna have to pick LA to repeat. Rotation and bullpen are just too strong.

AL is a little tougher. I think it could be the Rays again, but the Astros are really well built for the postseason. So let me go with LA/Houston.

[The Buscher]

LA/Houston in a World Series with packed houses is probably the most intriguing possible scenario.  I normally don't like the Dodgers but I'd pull for them in that to avenge 2017, especially since their fans didn't get to actually celebrate last year.

[gunnar hendershow]

34 minutes ago, CM Busch said:

LA/Houston in a World Series with packed houses is probably the most intriguing possible scenario.  I normally don't like the Dodgers but I'd pull for them in that to avenge 2017, especially since their fans didn't get to actually celebrate last year.

If it's LA/Tampa Bay then Dodger fans will be able to pack the house for all 7 games!

[Lowerdeck]

I'm guessing Yankees/Dodgers, because the world is a terrible place

[GhostMachine]

Hoping Dodgers/Rays, but expecting Dodgets/Astros.

Fuck the Yankees.

[The Buscher]

It’s also kinda ridiculous that the Giants and Dodgers will have to play the NLDS (if the Cards don’t knock the wild card out) and one of them will be taken out while one of the Brewers and Braves get to go to the NLCS.  Nothing like punishing the 1 seed.

DS seeding needs to be based on record.