2012 MLB Thread

[HailtotheYo]

The Yankees collapsing, Oakland surging, and the Nats with the best record in baseball ?

fucking awesome.

[naiwf]

Video of the AL East's projected finish.

[JStarr]

The Yankees collapsing, Oakland surging, and the Nats with the best record in baseball ?

fucking awesome.

That third one chaps my ass, but co-sign on the other two.

[Toe]

Yunel Escobar is no longer one of my favourite players in baseball.

[Meacon Keaton]

Not sure what he was trying to achieve with that.

What's Spanish for "I am an idiot"? He can have that on his eye black when he returns.

[Damian WayLNKe]

15 straight extra inning wins for the Orioles now.

[DYSI]

Why won't they just die already?!

[gunnar hendershow]

They're not gonna die. Pretty soon the run differential will be in the positives too. Showalter's been able to do some amazing game-to-game management, it's really been a blast to watch him treat every game like a Game 7.

[gunnar hendershow]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview12/news/story?id=7746521#orioles

Best inaccurate prediction ever.

[naiwf]

If the season ended right now Miggy would win the Triple Crown. I hope he gets it done, although it would be hilarious if he did and still didn't win the MVP because Trout has the sabermetrics crowd locked up.

[gunnar hendershow]

A couple Triple Crown winners in the past haven't won MVP, it wouldn't be unprecedented.

But the winner of the MVP will likely be the guy on the team that makes the postseason, but if neither do it's gotta be Trout who has won games with his glove as much as with as bat and as much as with his legs.

[naiwf]

A couple Triple Crown winners in the past haven't won MVP, it wouldn't be unprecedented.

But the winner of the MVP will likely be the guy on the team that makes the postseason, but if neither do it's gotta be Trout who has won games with his glove as much as with as bat and as much as with his legs.

I know, but the old farts will argue that TC winners should always be MVP ignoring the obvious fact that it hasn't happened 3 or 4 times already. The 1947 joke where DiMaggio beat Williams in spite of Williams leading the league in the three categories PLUS runs, BB, OBP, SLG, OPS and TB is one of the biggest robberies ever. His WAR was more than double DiMaggio's too (9.6 to 4.5). I guess winning the division was the only thing that mattered that year. This one will be different because Trout has clearly been more valuable even if Detroit makes the playoffs and the Angels don't, but it will be the best way to see who wields more power in award voting between the old guard and the new guard.

[The Buscher]

Wouldn't be surprise if this loss today cripples the A's. It's inexcusable to score 4 runs in extras and still blow it.

Sad part is I didn't even watch the game - I saw on ESPN that the Yanks were down 4 but had the bases loaded and I just knew they'd find a way to make the comeback. Why can there never be a year where they just flat out suck like the Mets?

[Panni]

That was an incredible game, and an awesome win for the Yankees...that race is unreal. Both the Yankees and the Orioles are on a 6-7 game winning streak.

If this was last year it really wouldn't matter because most likely one of them would just take the Wild Card spot, but now with a do-or-die game its so much more important to win the division. Overall, I'm loving the addition of that extra Wild Card...so many more fan-bases are able to experience a playoff race each year.

[naiwf]

Why can there never be a year where they just flat out suck like the Mets?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Meacon Keaton]

The Mets have money too. They just aren't smart enough to spend it wisely.

[gunnar hendershow]

That was an incredible game, and an awesome win for the Yankees...that race is unreal. Both the Yankees and the Orioles are on a 6-7 game winning streak.

If this was last year it really wouldn't matter because most likely one of them would just take the Wild Card spot, but now with a do-or-die game its so much more important to win the division. Overall, I'm loving the addition of that extra Wild Card...so many more fan-bases are able to experience a playoff race each year.

Yeah, it's gonna be a battle down to the wire for the AL East. There are so many twists in the playoff scenarios though. The winner of the AL East starts on the road for 2 games and then comes home for the last 3. Meanwhile, the team that gets the wild card will likely host a do-or-die game at home. The fun thing is, given that Texas faces Oakland 7 times in the last 10 games, it's very possible the two best records in the AL are New York and Baltimore.

I got tickets for both the Wild Card game, if the O's host that, and Game 2 of the ALDS which isn't a guaranteed game if they win the division. I don't have a problem with the playoff scheduling, if you're meant to win you'll overcome it and all that, but it's such a strange twist. But it cuts down on travels day which is a good call.

[The Buscher]

The Mets have money too. They just aren't smart enough to spend it wisely.

The Yankees have had some disastrous signings and/or injuries, but they normally have the luxury of having enough talent to cancel them out. In truth the only way the Yankees could have a legitimately bad, sub-.500 season would be if most of their starters went down to injury at the same time. And let's be real, only teams like the Mets are THAT unlucky.

I'm currently taking a grad course being taught by an MLB consultant - and we had a really interesting discussion on the Yankees. Despite what most would think, no team underspends on its own payroll more than them. Between tickets, growing worldwide merchandise sales, and the YES Network, they could easily bump their payroll to around the $250-$300 million range and still make a healthy profit. They actually have to restrain themselves internally to "only" spend $200 or so million a year because they could single-handedly overrun the league and bring it to the point where MLB would need to regulate payroll.

As somebody who grew up in CT and is surrounded by 20-something year old "fans" that have literally never experienced a bad Yankees team, I've always been interested in seeing what would happen if they just really sucked one year. There are some true fans in the area no doubt, but in general I only see an outpouring of Yankees fandom in CT once the playoffs roll around. I'm not convinced at all that too many people here would care if the Yankees sucked because most of them only watch once September comes up anyway.

[Maxx]

Ew.

[Blaze09]

Execellent, the plan is going as planned.

Thanks MLB!!!