2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[gunnar hendershow]

Isn't McCullers hurt? Maybe they pull some shit if he's better by a possible game 6 or 7 but I think they'd have put him on the roster and avoided this if they knew he could go in the first 4 games.

[The Buscher]

Yeah, McCullers is hurt.  Activating him for a game 6 or 7 would look very fishy and probably get investigated unless another player gets a very blatant injury during the series.  Chances are he’s fully out until the World Series if they advance.

In other ALCS roster news, I’ve always mentioned having a soft spot for Matt Barnes.  Not only a rare Connecticut athlete to make it pro but actually being from my town.

Anyway he made the All Star team this year as the Red Sox closer, got rewarded with a new 2-year contract only to then immediately fall off a cliff in August and September to the point where he got left off the ALDS roster.  He got re-added to injury and looked shaky even pitching in a blowout, and now he’s off the ALCS roster.  Quite a downfall.

[DMN in the House]

FTG, but that wasn't a swing.

Don't think dude was getting out of that at-bat against Scherzer with a positive result, tho, so it's hard to care much beyond feeling that the second greatest season in the history of the rivalry deserved a better finale.

[GhostMachine]

Yeah. How anyone could think that wasn't a check swing is beyond me. And I was for the Dodgers. Love them winning, but not like that.

Hoping Red Sox/Dodgers, but expecting Astros/Dodgers. If the Astros go at all, I hope that they lose. 

[The Buscher]

The media is going to portray the Mets’ failing to land one of their supposed “top 3” candidates for their POBO/GM role as some massive failure, even though all three were pipe dreams and it was pretty more about doing due diligence in checking around.

Theo stepped down from the Cubs because he ended the two most famous droughts in the sport and felt he’d done all he can running a team, why would he leave the MLB office after a year to go the Mets? Billy Beane has a relationship with Sandy Alderson but why would he leave Oakland all these years later just to start over from scratch? And the Brewers blocked the Mets from talking to David Stearns.

The POBO/GM doesn’t have to be a big name. Jared Porter wasn’t a marquee name either but his hiring last year was praised leaguewide as he was considered a brightest young minds in the game. Obviously he then was exposed a creep and got rightly fired, but the point is there are plenty of other bright young execs out there. Hire someone from the Dodgers, Rays, or another team of that ilk and they’ll be going in the right direction.

[gunnar hendershow]

I would just do what the Dodgers did with Friedman and basically coax Erik Neander out of Tampa Bay. The Rays front office is the best in sport, every one of their minor league teams is good and they're consistently good in the majors. You take that and put it in a place with pockets as deep as New York and the Mets could be the Dodgers east.

[The Buscher]

Yankees officially bring back Aaron Boone. He gets a 3-year contract with a 2025 option.

[gunnar hendershow]

LOL

[The Buscher]

The biggest knock on Boone, by far, was his bullpen management.  And the reality is in today's game, when lineups and rotations are often decided from above, bullpen management is like 95% of a manager's in-game responsibilities.

[GhostMachine]

Great to know that the Yankees won"t be making it to the Series for at least 3 more years.

[The Buscher]

Astros punch their ticket to the World Series.  Now it’s on Atlanta to avoid pulling an Atlanta and blowing a 3-1 lead again.

Not sure I see it.  The Dodgers are seriously beaten up now including Scherzer now being scratched from a must-win Game 6 with “arm fatigue”.

[gunnar hendershow]

1 hour ago, CM Busch said:

Astros punch their ticket to the World Series.  Now it’s on Atlanta to avoid pulling an Atlanta and blowing a 3-1 lead again.

Not sure I see it.  The Dodgers are seriously beaten up now including Scherzer now being scratched from a must-win Game 6 with “arm fatigue”.

All the more likely that Atlanta blows it since LA is trotting out the b-team to be fair.

[The Buscher]

Would be a tough pill for Dodgers fans to swallow if they got knocked out in a bullpen game tonight given that a guy like Scherzer was acquired for a moment like this.  But I think he even missed a World Series game in 2019 for the same reason.

Between managers having quick hooks to manipulate matchups and starters getting gassed from throwing max effort on every pitch since April, the days of aces pitching deep in October games is largely over.

[GhostMachine]

I wasn't really planning on watching the World Series this year. But if it ends up Astros-Braves, I'm definitely not watching. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Well guess GM is definitely not watching the World Series now.

[The Buscher]

In late July, the Mets hosted the Braves for a five game series.  The Braves, having just lost Acuna a few weeks earlier, had all the excuses in the world to just play out the string and call it a season.

Instead the Mets failed to put them down, lost three of five and got the Braves realizing they could easily win the terrible division with just a couple of low cost moves.

Ugh.

[DMN in the House]

GG to the Braves. Tough way to end the season, but with everything the team went through just didn't have the gas to get it done. Atlanta did and now they need to go beat the Astros.

No excuses, before I make what sounds like an excuse, but I think the season long fight with the Giants, then an emotional full series against them, just don't think the Dodgers had much left by the time they got there. 

[GhostMachine]

No one have a heart attack, but....

I actually agree with DMN! 

[MalaCloudy Black]

 

[The Buscher]

Cardinals hire their bench coach, 35-year old Oliver Marmol as new manager.  Oddly enough, it's the second straight time they've done this as Mike Shildt had been Mike Matheny's bench coach when he took over as manager.

One of the surest signs of a risk averse organization, basically never even considering candidates that aren't already "in the family".