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Play ball! 2019 MLB season thread


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Peter Botte
@PeterBotte
The Astros say reports of them losing the first two games at home are "misleading and completely irresponsible."
11:03 PM · Oct 23, 2019·Twitter for iPhone
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David Moore
@d_g_moore
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12h
Replying to 
@PeterBotte
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@Dan_Shaughnessy
What we really don’t know is the intent behind the pitches that got hit. We may never know that because the person who threw them and the batters who hit them, at least up to this point, have different perspectives

(last tweet is a parody of yet *another* ridiculous statement made by an Astros exec on Wednesday. Honestly, at this point from a PR point of view they’d be better off just shutting up) 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

Verlander has been nothing very special the entire post season and Grienke hasn't been impressive either. That's a lot of pressure on him, in DC, home fans sensing the opportunity at hand, to turn this around.

Yep, and though Nats are sitting pretty right now, it’s already been pointed out that several teams have lost the first two WS games at home and come back to win. (1996 Yankees being one of them!) I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Greinke turn in a solid performance and the Astros get back on track. If they *do* drop game 3, do they then bullpen game 4, or start Cole on short rest? I think both Verlander and Cole may be running out of steam a bit, as much as they’ve already pitched this year. This is where Houston’s really gotta be missing Lance McCullers.

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The Nats seem to be inviting some bad karma with that ceremony. The Astros had some bad karma with the Assistant Mgr incident but now that they’ve fired him and recognized the error of their ways, the baseball gods may now be shining on them again. If the Astros win tonight, all bets are off. Of course, if they lose, it’s sayonara, baby. 

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43 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Very, very bad baseball juju, gents:

Nats employees practice onfield trophy presentation

Very bad. 🤔

 

To be fair, this is apparently a longstanding practice for World Series hosting stadiums and would have been carried out if the Astros were up 2-0--for *their* benefit, were they to win it all at DC.  There's no chance of that happening, since they're down 2-0, so it looks worse than it really is.  Age of everything-captured-on-cellphone and all that.

2 minutes ago, Brad said:

The Astros had some bad karma with the Assistant Mgr incident but now that they’ve fired him and recognized the error of their ways, the baseball gods may now be shining on them again. If the Astros win tonight, all bets are off. Of course, if they lose, it’s sayonara, baby. 

Also agree that canning Taubman, while not resolving the obvious issues that Houston has as an organization, at least most likely gives the clubhouse more of a chance to put it behind them, psychologically speaking.  There's still a lot of fight to come in this series, methinks.

Edited by ghost of miles
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6 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

"the obvious issues that Houston has as an organization"

Other than being shit-stain stupid about handling a negative media event in real time, what "obvious issues" do they have? That "one of their own" let the public see what might be lurking behind closed doors and/or inner hearts and minds? If that's the case, I'd wager good money (or better than good money, actually) that that's a fuck-up waiting to happen across the board in...pretty much everything, everywhere.

Darkness is the default for life. That's why you steady gotta be heading towards the light instead of just sitting there basking in it.

 

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10 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Other than being shit-stain stupid about handling a negative media event in real time, what "obvious issues" do they have? That "one of their own" let the public see what might be lurking behind closed doors and/or inner hearts and minds? If that's the case, I'd wager good money (or better than good money, actually) that that's a fuck-up waiting to happen across the board in...pretty much everything, everywhere.

Darkness is the default for life. That's why you steady gotta be heading towards the light instead of just sitting there basking in it.

 

Well-agreed on that, but "shit-stupid" is a kind way of putting it.  More like Trumpian bluster/arrogance, what with the immediate unsigned statement that attacked the reporter and said the whole story was fabricated (after refusing to talk to said reporter before she even published the story in the first place!) and the whole slew of dumbass without-a-clue responses and incidents that followed, including this one (Astros GM says many people oversaw scathing statement):

Luhnow, who was addressing the decision to fire assistant general manager Brandon Taubman for his actions in the locker room after the Astros' victory over the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series game, was asked whether he personally reached out to reporter Stephanie Apstein.

“I have not — I’ve been traveling up here,” Luhnow said, according to the MLB Network. “We’ve been — I had to have a pretty tough conversation this morning with someone that’s worked for me for a long time. But, I will as soon as I can.”

According to MLB Network’s Hazel Mae, Apstein was sitting at the press conference.

 

I mean f&*%, these guys are just clueless when it comes to anything not involving analytics/winning baseball/making money, which, granted, is what it's all about, right?  Obviously what it's all about.  No, I have no illusions about the nature of other professional sports organizations, but damn, the Astros have, as I said earlier, really shown their ass to the world this week.  Keeping your ass in your pants is a good sign of all sorts of things--restraint, respect for self and others, and better for business too.  The past few days have provided little evidence that *any* of that is flourishing in this particular organization.  They're coming off as Trumpian dudes (as Jeff Passan of ESPN noted, they have an attack-back-when-attacked mentality, whether they've actually been "attacked" or not... sure sounds familiar to me!) who didn't even bother to check out what went down in the first place until it all blew up in their faces after that initial press release.  But here, let an Astros fan and blogger break down how even the announcement of the Taubman firing was laced with a considerable amount of b.s.:  The Astros' statement, with thoughts

All of that to me points to a deep and systemic, fundamental dishonesty at work within this organization.  And yeah, I know that said dishonesty is at work everywhere, but they haven't been able to get it right for nearly a week now, which says to me that they do indeed have some f'd-up issues at play. 

Per that post on the Astros County blog, this passage resonates as well:  " How much of what our society is currently experiencing - and especially to those of you who think that Baseball is: a Respite from What's Actually Happening and not what Baseball actually is: Indicative of What's Actually Happening - could have been avoided if you just, simply, believe the report and the corroborations of the report."

The Astros seem *very* indicative of What's Actually Happening, the ongoing shit-storm that we're not allowed to discuss at Organissimo because I guess jazz is supposed to be a "Respite from What's Actually Happening" (regardless of all the jazz artists who have spoken out in the past several years).  And the way they handled this whole incident is not some kinda weird, clumsy aberration, but testimony to an ongoing mentality of win-at-all-costs-and-bluster-dishonestly-at-anybody-who-gets-in-your-way.  I've had enough of that noise for a lifetime, thanks, which is why I'm still hoping that the Nats smack them down in the World Series.  

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20 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Well-agreed on that, but "shit-stupid" is a kind way of putting it. 

The phrase is "shit-stain stupid", and that's not at all kind.

and let's not bring Trump into this, please. That's too easy. Trump himself is not really "Trumpian", that gives him WAY too much credit for originality and power of character. When Trump goes away, there will still be that, and at some point it will get pinned on somebody else, as if that demon-du-jour is the cause of all the current evil.

Well, evil is timeless. Evil is eternal. Like they say, the classics never go out of style.

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37 minutes ago, GA Russell said:

So tonight it was announced that history was made.  The road team won the first six games of World Series for the first time.

amazing, isn't it???? I don't think anyone really gave the Nats a chance....I sure didn't after losing 3 in a row at home. 

Stephen Strasburg, IF he wanted to become a Free agent, could get a whole heck of a lot of moola....guessing since he re-upped in D.C. when he could have gotten more on the market (must have P.O.ed Borass so much when he told him he was staying put, that he thought about dropping him as a client) he's going to opt out then sign with them again. Nats just won't be good enough to compete next year without him....

Nice to see Houston look mortal. I sure thought it was going to Dodgers vs. Astros, and for the Astros to win it all.

 

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Can I just say that I freaking hate that NBC site that covers baseball?

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/10/29/spotlight-back-on-umpiring-in-world-series-game-6-as-sam-holbrook-makes-poor-ruling/

I thought it was questionable when I first looked at the video but the rules are simple: He's running out of the baseline, and the glove was obstructed by his hip. Absolutely no question it was the right call.

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/10/29/two-former-major-leaguers-are-upset-alex-bregman-carried-bat-to-first-base-on-world-series-homer/

Bregman isn't douchey because ... his politics are OK? Always good to know.

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/10/29/what-sustainable-success-really-means/

Between this and the screeching about minor league pay on this site, I swear it should shut down so that Baer and Calcaterra can take a leave to go work for Bernie at least until Spring Training starts.

 

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Friend and fellow baseball/jazz fanatic who listens frequently to NYC morning sports talk radio (he’s a Mets fan) just texted this to me and another baseball/jazz devotee:

“I just heard this:  This WS is first time in history of any sport with 7 game series - NBA, NHL, MLB - in which road team won first 6 games.”

 

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56 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Friend and fellow baseball/jazz fanatic who listens frequently to NYC morning sports talk radio (he’s a Mets fan) just texted this to me and another baseball/jazz devotee:

“I just heard this:  This WS is first time in history of any sport with 7 game series - NBA, NHL, MLB - in which road team won first 6 games.”

 

That’s correct. 

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1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

Friend and fellow baseball/jazz fanatic who listens frequently to NYC morning sports talk radio (he’s a Mets fan) just texted this to me and another baseball/jazz devotee:

“I just heard this:  This WS is first time in history of any sport with 7 game series - NBA, NHL, MLB - in which road team won first 6 games.”

 

Where did I hear this before?

12 hours ago, GA Russell said:

So tonight it was announced that history was made.  The road team won the first six games of World Series for the first time.

:rolleyes:

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