2019 MLB Season Catch-All

I still dislike that the wild card is a one game thing.

I dislike wildcards being a part of MLB. Having a one game playoff puts them in the disadvantaged position they should be in. And the one game playoff kicks of the MLB playoffs with a Game Seven level of excitement.

Honestly, I hated the one game wildcard payoff when it began, but I really like the impact it has had on the playoffs after having had it.

Prederick wrote:

Whoever that Brewers RF is.... eesh. I feel bad for him.

A rookie known for good defense. In fact, the rookie who started in AA, rose up the chain and took over for Yelich when he went out with the busted knee cap. Played a nice role in getting them in the playoffs, too. Too bad. HPB, broken bat single, a walk, and an error. That is baseball.

Hader's control is one of his best pitching attributes (20 BB in 75.2 IP) and he lost it in the 8th.

Sounds like someone does not follow a team in the AL East! It sucks that a team can have a better record then 3/4 of the division winners and be one and done. That's just bad for the sport. Most of the other major sports has wild cards playing so it must work.

I'm not a huge fan of wild card either, but I think if they're gonna have it, have some fun with it by making it a one off game between the two teams that didn't win their division and have the best record against the teams that did win their divisions

Oakland

Two years in a row where it's not really a game from the get go.

They flashed the results since 2000 which was a gut punch. 9 playoff appearances. 0 made it to the world series. 1 to the AL championship. Ouch.

I am in the camp of pulling for any AL team other than the Yankees to win the WS.

Before the game, I was leaning toward wanting Atlanta to win just because the '91 rematch is more interesting than the '87 rematch. Then, the first tomahawk chop happened and I immediately wanted them to get swept.

bhchrist wrote:

I am in the camp of pulling for any AL team other than the Yankees to win the WS.

Welcome aboard the Astros hype train!

I'd rather the Yankees win over the Astros considering I find Yuli Gurriel and Osuna absolutely reprehensible. Yankees have Chapman so they are not much better.

bhchrist wrote:

I am in the camp of pulling for any AL team other than the Yankees to win the WS.

I thumbs-upped this because I know we are monumentally insufferable douches, but I am still 150% rooting for the Yankees to make it 28 rings.

Vector wrote:

I'd rather the Yankees win over the Astros considering I find Yuli Gurriel and Osuna absolutely reprehensible. Yankees have Chapman so they are not much better.

I have nothing invested in Gurriel, and Osuna's alleged history does make me uncomfortable, but does one racially insensitive gesture make a person reprehensible for life? Or is there more? I doubt any of us can name a single person who hasn't done something shameful once in their life.

Please note I'm not excusing the gesture at all, it was quite a topic of discussion here in Houston at the time, where we have a huge Asian population (and are the most ethnically diverse city in the nation).

I’ll take the Yankees over the Astros. At least Yankee fans are insufferable blowhards every season. They are actual fans. The Astros are like the Seattle Seahawks, activating a bunch of bandwagon fans that want to tell us how awesome they are.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Vector wrote:

I'd rather the Yankees win over the Astros considering I find Yuli Gurriel and Osuna absolutely reprehensible. Yankees have Chapman so they are not much better.

I have nothing invested in Gurriel, and Osuna's alleged history does make me uncomfortable, but does one racially insensitive gesture make a person reprehensible for life? Or is there more? I doubt any of us can name a single person who hasn't done something shameful once in their life.

Please note I'm not excusing the gesture at all, it was quite a topic of discussion here in Houston at the time, where we have a huge Asian population (and are the most ethnically diverse city in the nation).

He was racist to another player and didn’t get punished until the playoffs were over. My wife’s Japanese and Gurriel did the slant eyes gesture towards Darvish. Couldn’t watch the rest of the series as she doesn’t appreciate being diminished that way.

Osuna’s history isn’t alleged, he beat his girlfriend and the only reason he got away was she and their child depends on his salary and refuses to press charges. I have a friend who works for Sportsnet (Canadian media) and is pretty surprised Osuna isn’t banned for life given what he did.

So yeah, f*ck the Astros for choosing to acquire a garbage human beings and not show any morality. I’m under no obligation to cheer for them.

A great outing by Wainwright for the Cards. Unfortunately the offense could not get clicking and the Cardinals bullpen is a shambles.

I just don’t see how Shildt keeps sending CarMart out to close. He keeps proving that he can’t close out games.

Man, the Twins had their hopes crushed so many times in that last game. Fingers crossed the Yankees can do that again to the Astros!

Vector wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:
Vector wrote:

I'd rather the Yankees win over the Astros considering I find Yuli Gurriel and Osuna absolutely reprehensible. Yankees have Chapman so they are not much better.

I have nothing invested in Gurriel, and Osuna's alleged history does make me uncomfortable, but does one racially insensitive gesture make a person reprehensible for life? Or is there more? I doubt any of us can name a single person who hasn't done something shameful once in their life.

Please note I'm not excusing the gesture at all, it was quite a topic of discussion here in Houston at the time, where we have a huge Asian population (and are the most ethnically diverse city in the nation).

He was racist to another player and didn’t get punished until the playoffs were over. My wife’s Japanese and Gurriel did the slant eyes gesture towards Darvish. Couldn’t watch the rest of the series as she doesn’t appreciate being diminished that way.

Osuna’s history isn’t alleged, he beat his girlfriend and the only reason he got away was she and their child depends on his salary and refuses to press charges. I have a friend who works for Sportsnet (Canadian media) and is pretty surprised Osuna isn’t banned for life given what he did.

So yeah, f*ck the Astros for choosing to acquire a garbage human beings and not show any morality. I’m under no obligation to cheer for them.

I can get on board with that. Non-Yankees or Astros.

I can throw a wrench into my own morality cries by saying I like the Braves a lot because Donaldson and AA (the GM) are my guys from the Blue Jays. Too bad about the insanely racist chop, logo, and and team name.

Well, I'll just say that I hope many of you are mildly disappointed tomorrow. Hopefully we can still be friends.

Well sh*t Atlanta. I was looking forward to 3 game 5s in 28 hours but you blew it in the first inning.

There's losing, and then there's THIS.

I have cursed every* team I have ever liked.

*Toronto Raptors broke the curse so this is a new one

It won't stop...

This feels like a make-up from the 1996 playoffs when the Braves knocked the Cards out in Game 7.

I had recorded the game on VCR because I was working. I watched at the Braves scored 6 runs in the first inning. My wife, who was bartending that night, called me and asked if I was watching the game. I told her I was in the first inning. She just said "Oh....," which told me something was up.

I asked her if it got better, and she responded, "No, it gets worse." They lost 15-0. I decided not to watch the rest of it and went to her bar and got hammered instead.

I was so bummed because I had been looking forward to a Cards/Yankees series my whole life, and they were on the verge of it.

Jayhawker wrote:

I was so bummed because I had been looking forward to a Cards/Yankees series my whole life, and they were on the verge of it.

At the risk of jinxing it ... we probably won’t get that match up this year

Also I gotta add: being at game 4 when Yadi tied it and then won it was awesome. Been watching him since he was at Triple-A here in Memphis and its very cool to be able to see him from the early days to now.

Y'know, I've defended Clayton Kershaw against THE NARRATIVE before, but I'm done. I have no idea what it is for that man, but is is absolutely not cut out for playoff baseball. They shouldn't even put him on the playoff roster.

Damn I thought Will Smith (FROM LOUISVILLE) had it.

Never doubt Gonzalo Le Batard when he almost kills himself to indicate Kershaw's going to choke.

Oh, this thread exists!

As a Nationals fan, this has been an unbelievable postseason so far. I had totally given up on Game 5 after seeing early on that Strasburg just didn't have it last night. Even when they tied it off of Kershaw, which was awesome!, I still figured our bullpen would let us down sooner rather than later. But I guess Dave Roberts must've had money on the Nats or maybe just hasn't been watching the playoffs, because I really can't think of any reason other than those that he would've brought Joe Kelly out for a second inning of relief. Nats fans on twitter were universally giddy to see Kelly coming out for another inning.

It reminded me of one of our painful series losses, the 2014 NLDS, where, in the key situation in the 7th, rather than bringing in one of our better relievers or one of our starters who were available in relief, our manager sent in a mediocre-to-poor reliever in a high leverage situation because "he's our 7th inning guy", and we lost the game with much better pitchers never having thrown the ball. What I found most distressing about that loss was how it showed that our manager was just not up to the task, so having him come back for the following season felt extra depressing (he was fired at the end of the following season). Tough one for the Dodgers...I don't know if you can justify firing a manager who won 106 games during the season, but seeing that performance would not leave me feeling optimistic about the next postseason. But having been through several painful NLDS Game 5s (2012 most of all, and 2016 and 2017), I'm glad to be on this side of it for once!

At the risk of getting ahead of myself (and mostly because of the advance planning that would be required to pull this off) I'm looking into travel plans to get me down to DC in the event of a World Series appearance. It looks like the NL team would host the Friday-Saturday-Sunday games 3-4-5, so hopefully I'd be able to manage attending a game without missing any work. Eek.