MLB 2017

[scruff puppy pup]

Blue Jays score 7 in the bottom of the ninth to beat The Angels 11-10.

Mike Trout is wasted in an Angels side that has poor pitching. He is generally regarded as the premier offensive player in the whole of MLB, better stats than Bryce Harper.

 

[scruff puppy pup]

4pm Eastern Time today is the deadline for trades.
The Cubs have just made their move, I expect them to take control of the NL Central and make the play-offs to defend their title:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...-alex-avila-chicago-cubs-prospects/524411001/

In fact, for the NL, you could pretty much pick the play-off sides already: Dodgers, Nationals, Cubs, then the Rockies and Diamondbacks as wild-cards.

 

[Nada Bee]

Mike Trout is wasted in an Angels side that has poor pitching. He is generally regarded as the premier offensive player in the whole of MLB, better stats than Bryce Harper.

Its probably worth them trading him to rebuild their team. Same with JD from Blue Jays.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

very enjoyable watching! The biggest 9th inning comeback in team history. Also up until last Thursday, there had only been 2 walk-off grand slams in Blue Jay's history - cue Steve Pearce who's now done it twice in 4 days!!

Mind you, the dramatic finish masked what had, up until then, been a pretty dismal display from the Jays (that's the Brentford supporter in me coming out, I'm afraid).

 

[Lee at the Bees]

one amusing feature was that, from an attendance of 46,000+, there were only actually about 15,000 people left in the stadium for the 9th inning.

In about 10 years time, there'll be 100,000 Torontonians who are adamnat that they stayed until the end!

 

[Lee at the Bees]

4pm Eastern Time today is the deadline for trades.
The Cubs have just made their move, I expect them to take control of the NL Central and make the play-offs to defend their title:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...-alex-avila-chicago-cubs-prospects/524411001/

In fact, for the NL, you could pretty much pick the play-off sides already: Dodgers, Nationals, Cubs, then the Rockies and Diamondbacks as wild-cards.

Houston aside, the same cannot be said for the American League

 

[scruff puppy pup]

Its probably worth them trading him to rebuild their team. Same with JD from Blue Jays.

I think it's unlikely the Angels will do that, he's their franchise player. He's contracted to them until 2020, he's turning 27 this month, in the prime of his career.
Brings back some memories of Dale Murphy at Atlanta, back when the Braves were perenially awful. Then they assembled one of the greatest starting rotations in modern baseball history and turned the club around.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

A franchise record and the second time in this latest home stand that it came from a walk off grand stand Homer.

(SORRY - meant to post this in reply earlier but pressed the wrong button!)

Very enjoyable watching! The biggest 9th inning comeback in team history. Also up until last Thursday, there had only been 2 walk-off grand slams in Blue Jay's history - cue Steve Pearce who's now done it twice in 4 days!!

Mind you, the dramatic finish masked what had, up until then, been a pretty dismal display from the Jays (that's the Brentford supporter in me coming out, I'm afraid).

One amusing feature was that, from an attendance of 46,000+, there were only actually about 15,000 people left in the stadium for the 9th inning.

In about 10 years time, there'll be 100,000 Torontonians who are adamant that they stayed until the end!

 

[TW3Bee]

Always a full house at SkyDome when I saw a few games, almost 20 years ago now.
Have they still got a Hard Rock Cafe there?

 

[Lee at the Bees]

Always a full house at SkyDome when I saw a few games, almost 20 years ago now.
Have they still got a Hard Rock Cafe there?

No, the Hard Rock cafe went some years ago.

Of course the stadium is called the Rogers Centre now, although occasionally you hear commentators from National League teams - who don't visit very often - refer to it as Skydome. Although it is not universally popular, the authorities there have made quite a few improvements in recent seasons. There used to be a manky old restaurant in centre field which they opened completely out into a tiered standing area which is now really popular and looks good. Also, the Toronto Argonauts Canadian football team have moved down the road to share BMO Field with the local MLS team, so now they don't have to keep reconfiguring the stadium and have much more flexibility. They are finally planning to replace the artificial field with natural grass next season which will be better in almost every respect, most importantly because the wear and tear of playing on the artificial surface actually puts many players off of playing for the Blue Jays..

For some reason - not entirely explained by a recent upturn in team performances - the Blue Jays have become popular locally again. They lost a lot of goodwill after the 1994 strike, much more than was the case south of the border and a whole generation of fans turned away. Suddenly a new, much younger fanbase has developed and, from a low watermark 4 or 5 years ago where average attendances hovered around the 15-18,000 mark, they are regularly selling out and have the highest average attendance in the American League.

 

[TW3Bee]

Fans may be turning away again after last nights performance.
After scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the nineth to complete a walk off win the previous night The Jays concede 1 in the 7th, 4 in the 8th and 2 in the nineth to suffer a walk off defeat against The White Sox.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

Fans may be turning away again after last nights performance.
After scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the nineth to complete a walk off win the previous night The Jays concede 1 in the 7th, 4 in the 8th and 2 in the nineth to suffer a walk off defeat against The White Sox.

yes, ugly stuff. Unfortunately the comeback win on Sunday papered over what had been another wretched performance, full of errors, sloppy play and just bad baseball. Pretty much what they have been doing all season. To be honest I'm not sure how their crowds are holding up the way they are - this has been a terrible year for the Jays, especially in light of pre-season expectations. Though obviously they would strenuously deny it, it's hard to escape the conclusion that a few of the players are just waiting for the season to end. I fear it's going to be a long last 8 weeks for them - worse still, of the 56 games they have left, 33 are against AL East rivals. Their record against those teams is abysmal. In all probability, they will be bottom of the division from the first day of the season to the last, a humiliation which will be richly deserved, I'm afraid.

 

[TW3Bee]

yes, ugly stuff. Unfortunately the comeback win on Sunday papered over what had been another wretched performance, full of errors, sloppy play and just bad baseball. Pretty much what they have been doing all season. To be honest I'm not sure how their crowds are holding up the way they are - this has been a terrible year for the Jays, especially in light of pre-season expectations. Though obviously they would strenuously deny it, it's hard to escape the conclusion that a few of the players are just waiting for the season to end. I fear it's going to be a long last 8 weeks for them - worse still, of the 56 games they have left, 33 are against AL East rivals. Their record against those teams is abysmal. In all probability, they will be bottom of the division from the first day of the season to the last, a humiliation which will be richly deserved, I'm afraid.

The upside of that is that The Blue Jays will get an earlier draft pick next year.

 

[maddogging]

Bartman got a ring !!!

 

[scruff puppy pup]

Yankees are in. Made good moves signing starting pitchers Sonny Gray and Jaime Garcia. Their long term outlook is very positive, they've set themselves up with a good number of young talented players. I'm not convinced their starting rotation stands up against the best, but they do have a strong bullpen.
Dodgers and Yankees seem to consistently have a good farm system, from which they deal from a position of strength whilst protecting their top prospects.
As a Mets fan I can't stand either of them.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

The upside of that is that The Blue Jays will get an earlier draft pick next year.

Yes, I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps everyone has misjudged them and to finish last is their plan.

Rather like the Indians' owner in Major League!

 

[Lee at the Bees]

Yankees are in. Made good moves signing starting pitchers Sonny Gray and Jaime Garcia. Their long term outlook is very positive, they've set themselves up with a good number of young talented players. I'm not convinced their starting rotation stands up against the best, but they do have a strong bullpen.
Dodgers and Yankees seem to consistently have a good farm system, from which they deal from a position of strength whilst protecting their top prospects.
As a Mets fan I can't stand either of them.

I'm not sure, even as a Mets fan, that you are alone in not liking the Yankees...

 

[TW3Bee]

As a Mets fan I can't stand either of them.

I remember going to the old Shea Stadium, and there was a fan there with a T-Shirt saying 'I support two teams, The Mets and whoever The Yankees are playing'.

 

[TW3Bee]

I'm not sure, even as a Mets fan, that you are alone in not liking the Yankees...

:yes:

 

[scruff puppy pup]

I'm not sure, even as a Mets fan, that you are alone in not liking the Yankees...

Yankees fans vary from the boorish - anything a player on your team has achieved, one of theirs in the past has trumped it - to the arrogant.
But their organisation has been one of the best at bringing talent through, or identifying the right prospects to trade for, as with Clint Frazier. Same applies to the Dodgers, they have a great farm system.
Dodger's fans always used to be ridiculed for leaving the game in the 7th inning even when it was a close contest in order to beat the traffic. I don't know if that's still the case, but hey ho, LA is a weird city anyway, just ask Larry David.

 

[TW3Bee]

Same applies to the Dodgers, they have a great farm system.
Dodger's fans always used to be ridiculed for leaving the game in the 7th inning even when it was a close contest in order to beat the traffic. I don't know if that's still the case, but hey ho, LA is a weird city anyway, just ask Larry David.

I would have thought that after Kirk Gibson hit 'that' Home Run in the first game of the 1988 World Series no Dodgers fan would ever leave a game early again.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

Yankees fans vary from the boorish - anything a player on your team has achieved, one of theirs in the past has trumped it - to the arrogant.
But their organisation has been one of the best at bringing talent through, or identifying the right prospects to trade for, as with Clint Frazier. Same applies to the Dodgers, they have a great farm system.
Dodger's fans always used to be ridiculed for leaving the game in the 7th inning even when it was a close contest in order to beat the traffic. I don't know if that's still the case, but hey ho, LA is a weird city anyway, just ask Larry David.

I don't blame them. I had personal experience of Los Angeles traffic last September. The last 15 miles of Route 66 seemed to take nearly as long as the previous 2430!

 

[scruff puppy pup]

The Dodgers are 43-7 in their last 50 games, an astonishing record.

I said before the All Star break, it was between them and the Astros, but Houston has been widely criticised for inactivity leading up to the trade deadline, considering they have had trouble with injuries.

 

[TW3Bee]

The Dodgers are 43-7 in their last 50 games, an astonishing record.

I said before the All Star break, it was between them and the Astros, but Houston has been widely criticised for inactivity leading up to the trade deadline, considering they have had trouble with injuries.

Three of those defeats have been to The Braves.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

The Dodgers are 43-7 in their last 50 games, an astonishing record.

I said before the All Star break, it was between them and the Astros, but Houston has been widely criticised for inactivity leading up to the trade deadline, considering they have had trouble with injuries.

44-7 after last night! Poor Colorado, 16 games over .500 and they're over 15 games behind...

 

[scruff puppy pup]

44-7 after last night! Poor Colorado, 16 games over .500 and they're over 15 games behind...

Dodgers record is even more remarkable considering the two wild cards will likely come from their own division, so they are playing in the toughest division.
By contrast, the Nationals could take a vacation 'til the end of the month and they'd probably still be atop the NL East.

 

[TW3Bee]

RIP Darren Daulton and Don Baylor.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

Dodgers record is even more remarkable considering the two wild cards will likely come from their own division, so they are playing in the toughest division.
By contrast, the Nationals could take a vacation 'til the end of the month and they'd probably still be atop the NL East.

It's starting to look like the Astros HAVE taken a vacation!

 

[scruff puppy pup]

It's starting to look like the Astros HAVE taken a vacation!

Widely criticised for inactivity before the recent trade deadline. Needed to strengthen their pirching and didn't.

 

[scruff puppy pup]

Miami Marlins's Giancarlo Stanton - the guy they signed to a horrendously long and expensive contract a few seasons back - leads the majors with 44 home runs, seven more than the next guy.

So, the question has to be asked: is he juiced?

 

[scruff puppy pup]

Further to my above post, the Marlins placed Stanton on waivers, but no one claimed him.
Basically, Miami wants to cut it's payroll, Stanton's contract is something like $250 million dollars total for the next ten years, the biggest contract in baseball.
So, great player that he is, no side was willing to take that burden off them.

 

[TW3Bee]

The Dodgers got their 90th win lqast night.
The night before Rich Hill took a no-hitter into the 10th inning in Pittsburgh and ended up losing 1-0.

 

[Ubee]

Went to my first MLB game earlier this month at Wrigley Field. Wasn't sure what to expect, as I've never followed baseball before, but really enjoyed it.

I'm tempted to start following it a bit - but the coverage seems to pretty crap here. What are people's preferred news sites/apps/streaming sites for following?

Reckon I'll fully get my ahead around the league system after a couple of years!

 

[Nada Bee]

Went to my first MLB game earlier this month at Wrigley Field. Wasn't sure what to expect, as I've never followed baseball before, but really enjoyed it.

I'm tempted to start following it a bit - but the coverage seems to pretty crap here. What are people's preferred news sites/apps/streaming sites for following?

Reckon I'll fully get my ahead around the league system after a couple of years!

Use an app called "at bat" it's truly superb. You can set up your favourite team etc

You can pay £22 a month to watch every game or do as I do and pay £2.70 for the highlights a month.

 

[TW3Bee]

Use an app called "at bat" it's truly superb. You can set up your favourite team etc

You can pay £22 a month to watch every game or do as I do and pay £2.70 for the highlights a month.

I've got a Bet365 account.
If you deposit £5 you can watch live game coverage.

 

[TW3Bee]

Went to my first MLB game earlier this month at Wrigley Field. Wasn't sure what to expect, as I've never followed baseball before, but really enjoyed it.

I'm tempted to start following it a bit - but the coverage seems to pretty crap here. What are people's preferred news sites/apps/streaming sites for following?

Reckon I'll fully get my ahead around the league system after a couple of years!

Great stadium to watch your first game.

 

[scruff puppy pup]

Great stadium to watch your first game.

Don't encourage him.
Please, follow anybody except the Cubs or Yankees.

And the mlb.com website does very good live game coverage, shows the placement of pitches as they come in, plus some video feeds.

 

[TW3Bee]

Don't encourage him.
Please, follow anybody except the Cubs or Yankees.

And the mlb.com website does very good live game coverage, shows the placement of pitches as they come in, plus some video feeds.

I didn't mean choose the Cubs as your team, just that Wrigley Field is one of the best stadiums.
Obviously not the best.

Agree about The ****ees though.

 

[TW3Bee]

Miami Marlins's Giancarlo Stanton - the guy they signed to a horrendously long and expensive contract a few seasons back - leads the majors with 44 home runs, seven more than the next guy.

So, the question has to be asked: is he juiced?

Just hit his 50th HR of the season.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

Use an app called "at bat" it's truly superb. You can set up your favourite team etc

You can pay £22 a month to watch every game or do as I do and pay £2.70 for the highlights a month.

Yep, got to be 'At Bat' - every MLB game can be watched live (or in full after the event). Also it's available on hundreds of different devices. In my house alone I can watch games on the laptop, pc, ipad, my telephone, via the Apple tv and via the Panasonic DVD player!

In fact we get a better deal out of it than they do in the US/Canada, as the games there are blocked for viewers in the region that they are being played (something to do with television rights), whereas no such restriction is in place for international subscribers. In addition, they show all the post season games over here. You can even choose home or away commentaries for each game. That may sound mundane but, trust me, some of these regular baseball broadcasters are hilarious.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

Went to my first MLB game earlier this month at Wrigley Field. Wasn't sure what to expect, as I've never followed baseball before, but really enjoyed it.

I'm tempted to start following it a bit - but the coverage seems to pretty crap here. What are people's preferred news sites/apps/streaming sites for following?

Reckon I'll fully get my ahead around the league system after a couple of years!

Excellent stuff. Aside from Wrigley, the other ideal introduction to baseball would be Fenway Park in Boston, where you enjoy a very similar experience in a stadium almost identical in age.

Stick with it as you'll find, once you get your head around the subtleties, that the game will grow on you. The individual team websites give plenty of information (obviously) and take a look at the At-Bat site (see previous posts), especially for coverage of games. There is continued discussion about staging a major league game over here in the next couple of years, which might increase the profile but, as you say, coverage is very limited here otherwise.

As for the leagues, just remember there's no promotion or relegation and teams don't only play the other teams in their divisions. The rest you'll work out in due course.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

The Dodgers got their 90th win lqast night.
The night before Rich Hill took a no-hitter into the 10th inning in Pittsburgh and ended up losing 1-0.

And he took a perfect game into the 9th! Apparently the last pitcher to lose after pitching nine or more innings and allowing 1 hit and no walks was in 1906.

 

[scruff puppy pup]

Just hit his 50th HR of the season.

Marlins want to trade Stanton and the Giants want him.
Won't happen now, 'cos Marlins are on the edge of the wildcard race, but could well happen during the close season.

 

[maddogging]

I've just watched Chris Sale live, now is he really good (he certainly looked it), or the Blue Jays just poor ?

 

[Guildford Bee]

I was Chicago over the weekend took in a couple of games. We had tickets for the Cubs - Pirates on the Monday night but the forecast was abysmal so we decided to take in White Sox - Tigers on the Sunday afternoon in case Monday was rained out. Entertaining 7-1 win for the home club on a very unpleasant afternoon. At 5-0 down in the 7th (I think) the Tigers had a grandslam home run chalked off which would've made things very interesting. Despite being a dead rubber between two pretty poor teams it was a fun afternoon. Nice ballpark with loads to do and great to wander round. Surrounding area not so great and we knew better than to stroll around the south side. The announcer crowd was 23,000 but I'd say it was more like 12,000. I managed to grab a foul ball (a lifetime ambition of mine) and gave it to a young lad. While I got a nice round of applause and a cheer I'm somewhat regretting the gesture now!

On Monday the weather turned up to be fine. Firstly, what a great place Wrigleyville is before and after a game. So many bars with a great buzz and a real sense of occasion. I can only imagine what it was like being in that neighbourhood for the WS last year. The game was entertaining but the result never really in doubt with the Cubs winning 6-1 to keep up their unconvincing division lead. A couple of magnificent defensive plays and a comedy of errors from the Pirates that saw two runs scored were the highlights. Not as much variety in the ball park which is understandable given its age. Obviously steeped in tradition and a great place to go - 38,000 in attendance and the stadium looked pretty packed.

 

[GP200]

............how much were the tickets?????...........

 

[Guildford Bee]

............how much were the tickets?????...........

I always use StubHub for baseball tickets as you can get them well under face value unless it's a huge match.

For the Sox game we got two last minute in the 5th row level with third base - only $11 each.

For the Cubs we were about half way up the lower deck level with first base. Think we paid about $30 each for tickets with a face value of closer to $70. I looked on StubHub just before the start of the game and there were great deals available.

 

[scruff puppy pup]

I've just watched Chris Sale live, now is he really good (he certainly looked it), or the Blue Jays just poor ?

Both.
The best starting pitcher in baseball these past five seasons has been Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers. I'd maybe put Max Scherzer of the Nationals. An elite pitcher is good every season. All pitchers have blow-out games, where they just don't have their stuff.
The key stat to look at is WHIP, walks + hits per innings pitched, it measures how effective a pitcher is at preventing hitters from getting on base.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

I've just watched Chris Sale live, now is he really good (he certainly looked it), or the Blue Jays just poor ?

Both, I'm afraid.

 

[Lee at the Bees]

The announcer crowd was 23,000 but I'd say it was more like 12,000.

It's remarkable how all MLB teams seem to do that with their attendances. I've been to Rogers Centre many times over the years when the stadium is half full and the announced attendance is at least 10-15000 higher than the number of spectators in attendance. I watched an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium earlier this year where there can't have been more than 10,000 there. Whole sections of the stadium were empty and yet the announced attendance was 38,000+!!

To what extent it's to do with ticket holders that haven't come to that particular game I'm not sure, maybe there are other reasons. Anyway, you can usually tell when a commentator is sceptical about the attendance figure as they will make a point of emphasising the 'announced' bit before giving out the figure.