MLB 2018: let the games begin!

[Brad]

Mets have DFA’ed Harvey. Sadly, it’s about time. 

[Dan Gould]

4 minutes ago, Brad said:

Mets have DFA’ed Harvey. Sadly, it’s about time. 

Will they provide a second limo for his ego?

[T.D.]

42 minutes ago, Brad said:

Mets have DFA’ed Harvey. Sadly, it’s about time. 

Richly deserved and no surprise.

I'm mostly a hockey fan...back in the old days, when an NHL team had a chronic malcontent the club would endeavor to trade the player to Winnipeg, as the most undesirable destination. Pity there's no comparable franchise location in MLB (as far as I can tell).

Edited May 4, 2018 by T.D.

[Aggie87]

13 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

That sure turned out to be a great series for the Yankees, taking three of four from Houston on the road. The first game and nearly all of the second seemed like more of the same from last year’s ALCS (completely hamstrung at Minute Maid Park), but they showed some rapid maturation in pulling out those three wins. I’m still concerned about how well the rotation holds up across the course of the season, and there are other issues (is Brett Gardner finally wearing out? He’s already hitting as badly as he tends to hit in the last two months of the year, and he’s not walking much either—his OBP is terrible for a leadoff hitter). But Gleyber Torres is already a joy to watch, not to mention Luis Severino. Overall it’s a much brighter picture than it was only two weeks ago.

Anybody here a Diamondbacks fan? Are they for real? I don’t pay as much attention to the NL as I should... and speaking of the NL, I miss Matthew and his running commentary on all things Dodgers. 

Yankees looked fantastic in the series at Houston.  Will be a very interesting playoff series, assuming nothing squirrely happens and they both get in.

Astros are playing the Dbacks right now.  Gerrit Cole has 16 strikeouts through 8 innings, a career high (and matching the MLB high this season I believe).  And the Dbacks put in Daniel Descalso to pitch, with one out in the 9th, after playing third base the entire game.  I guess they're trying to save their bullpen for the rest of the series.   

edit - game's over, Cole pitched a 1 hit shutout with 16 strikeouts.  Not a shabby way to start May.  

And yes, I miss Matthew as well, both here and on Facebook (where he also disappeared).  Always enjoyed chatting with him about music, sports, and life in general.

Edited May 5, 2018 by Aggie87

[Soulstation1]

Tribe can’t beat the Yankees 

Congrats on AP 3000th hit 

[ghost of miles]

Yankees-Indians this afternoon is crazy--a combined total of one hit so far for both teams, a single by Aaron Hicks.  Domingo German struck out 9 and gave up no hits through six innings in his first start as a Yankee, but he's not stretched out enough to go much past 80 pitches yet.  Betances just set down Cleveland 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th, and NY cannot solve Clevinger.

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

Yankees-Indians this afternoon is crazy--a combined total of one hit so far for both teams, a single by Aaron Hicks.  Domingo German struck out 9 and gave up no hits through six innings in his first start as a Yankee, but he's not stretched out enough to go much past 80 pitches yet.  Betances just set down Cleveland 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th, and NY cannot solve Clevinger.

Gleyber Torres .... !! 

[ghost of miles]

That game got even crazier—and ended in the best possible way! The fourth time so far this year that NY’s won after trailing at the end of 8 innings—they did it five times for all of 2017. (Of course that lovely-looking stat also reflects the bullpen’s propensity, yet again, to fail in the late innings.)

On 4/22/2018 at 0:02 AM, ghost of miles said:

 Gleyber Torres, save us from this awful fate!.

 

Torres made his first MLB start two weeks ago. Since then the Yankees are 14-1. Not a bad coincidence!

[Soulstation1]

Dem Damn Yankees 

😡

[ghost of miles]

From Stats by Stats' Twitter feed:

At 21 years and 144 days old, Gleyber Torres in the youngest player in @Yankees history to hit a walk-off HR. Gleyber Torres 21-144 Mickey Mantle 21-185 Melky Cabrera 21-341 Joe DiMaggio 22-266 Mickey Mantle 22-275

And one for Dan:

Chris Sale has 371 Ks in his 40 games with the @RedSox, the second most by any player through 40 games with a single club in the last 100 years. Randy Johnson, Ari - 417 Chris Sale, Bos - 371 Nolan Ryan, Tex - 355 Dwight Gooden, NYM - 342 Nolan Ryan, Cal - 341

[soulpope]

11 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

That game got even crazier—and ended in the best possible way! The fourth time so far this year that NY’s won after trailing at the end of 8 innings—they did it five times for all of 2017. (Of course that lovely-looking stat also reflects the bullpen’s propensity, yet again, to fail in the late innings.)

Torres made his first MLB start two weeks ago. Since then the Yankees are 14-1. Not a bad coincidence!

This 15 game stretch is as "unreal as was the weak start ....

[Dan Gould]

Pomeranz and Price go Tuesday and Wednesday = Yankees alone in first place by Thursday morning.

Porcello gives them a shot on Thursday to leave in a tie but Sabathia is actually their most consistent pitcher so, probably not.

[ghost of miles]

10 hours ago, soulpope said:

This 15 game stretch is as "unreal as was the weak start ....

Yeah, this can't go on forever, but it's sure fun while it lasts!  The Boston series will be a real clash of the titans (and Dan, Severino's only loss this year, FWIW, is to the Red Sox, so... I'm not putting game 1 in the bag for NY yet by any means).  Also sounds that more likely than not Mookie Betts will be in the lineup come Tuesday.  He's hitting like the second coming of Babe Ruth or some such.

[Dan Gould]

Pomeranz is awful so far. There's no reason why he should be expected to outpitch anyone let alone the hotter-than-hot opposition's ace.  Their only hope is that the baseball gods finally say ENOUGH.

[T.D.]

Mets trade Matt Harvey to Reds.

Don't know enough about the respective contracts (and who's paying what) to comment.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, T.D. said:

Mets trade Matt Harvey to Reds.

Don't know enough about the respective contracts (and who's paying what) to comment.

A stiff for a stiff. Enough said. Well, almost. He’s a catcher who hit 220 and is making around $13M. Since Harvey makes about $6M, the Reds are also sending money. 

[jlhoots]

Milwaukee 3 - Cleveland 2

[ghost of miles]

I was at a concert last night and didn't get to watch the Yankees-Red Sox game--just checked the score several times on my phone.  I'd say the odds favor Boston in tonight's match-up, especially now that David Price has been scratched as Boston's starter; the Yankees have done very well against him in recent years.  They've been extremely mediocre against Porcello, with the exception of Gardner (.325 in 40 AB), and Stanton, but in the case of Stanton, the sample size is so small as to be nearly meaningless (two hits in three AB).  J.D. Martinez, on the other hand, owns Tanaka, hitting .583 with 7 RBI off him in 12 AB.  Plus Porcello is pitching lights-out right now.  As with the Houston series, these games already seem to approach the intensity of a playoff series, even though it's only early May.   

[Brad]

1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

I was at a concert last night and didn't get to watch the Yankees-Red Sox game--just checked the score several times on my phone. 

 You have your priorities misplaced!

[paul secor]

I'm sure this has happened before, but I can't recall seeing it. Very strange that it occurred in the first inning of a game. I could understand if it happened later on because of a double substitution.

https://nesn.com/2018/05/mets-caught-batting-out-of-order-apparently-turned-in-wrong-lineup-card/

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/mlb-mets-reds-new-york-bats-out-of-order-brings-inning-to-end-video/1ftwyima4u5g61mcy6ek1gwmvc

Edited May 9, 2018 by paul secor

[HutchFan]

49 minutes ago, paul secor said:

I'm sure this has happened before, but I can't recall seeing it. Very strange that it occurred in the first inning of a game. I could understand if it happened later on because of a double substitution.

https://nesn.com/2018/05/mets-caught-batting-out-of-order-apparently-turned-in-wrong-lineup-card/

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/mlb-mets-reds-new-york-bats-out-of-order-brings-inning-to-end-video/1ftwyima4u5g61mcy6ek1gwmvc

Bush league mistake.

[Brad]

It happens from time to time.  It’s just typical what’s going on with this team right now. 

[soulpope]

Aaron Judge .... and another BS by last seasons "Mr. Reliable" Chad Green ....

[Dan Gould]

Some will call it gut-check time for me its check-out time. Won't watch won't know won't care.

But with any luck at all whenever they go back to Fenway it will be to chants of Oh-VER-RAY-TED.

[ghost of miles]

For all of the hype about the Yankees’ offense, they’ve scored only 9 more runs than Boston (going into tonight’s game, which Boston is absolutely dominating) and hit two more HRs. Boston as a team is hitting .270 to NY’s .252; the Yankees’ tendency to earn a lot of walks is what keeps them par with Boston’s OBP:

MLB team hitting stats

Much the same story with pitching. AL East will go down to the wire with these two. (Boston’s also got Tyler Thornburg on the way to bulk up the bullpen.)