2018 regular-season game chatter

and if it's the good-teams-shouldn't-have-to-play-in-wild-cards one, the 2015 NL wild card game featured teams with the second- and third-best records in the majors

white sox will *not* call up eloy jimenez, who is hitting .365/.407/.615 in triple-a

jim kaat . . . otm?

Wish TV networks would stop using the assumed strike zone box .The angle of the center field camera must be off center because too many strkes are called balls and vice versa. The umpires don’t deserve that. Please Get rid of it. Its not 100% accurate

— Jim Kaat (@KaatJim) August 31, 2018

It's generally acknowledged that it's not 100% accurate, but I think it's a depth thing rather than "off-center". Jim Kaat still wrong about most things.

does the strike zone graphic they put in the corner have the same problems?

i think the one in the corner is PITCHFx, right?

i feel like most networks would adjust the strike zone box for camera angle... not that they're accurate or anything but i'd imagine they put a little more thought into it than that

https://i.imgur.com/BSMDd6K.jpg

Game Score of 96 for Syndergaard today.

Joe West's latest power play is nullified

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24558108/gabe-kapler-philadelphia-phillies-says-pitchers-allowed-use-cheat-sheets

SNITCH

.@SteveGelbs reveals the TRUTH behind the @FlavaFraz21 diving “catch” on Monday. Video don’t lie! pic.twitter.com/P4a1gBQIXe

— SportsNet New York (@SNYtv) September 5, 2018

I have to side with Joe West on this one. It's not like they don't have time to go over the scouting reports before the game or between innings, or get the coaches to relay signals from the dugout. Even if it doesn't delay the game, it feels unnecessary and kind of embarrassing. You're essentially broadcasting the fact that you're not properly prepared to play the game that day.

Seems only fair if the outfielders are consulting their defensive zone notes though.

the todd frazier thing seems really inconclusive, it's weird that everyone's "debunking" it. it looks like he catches the ball and then falls on top of a different ball, but you don't see him drop the real ball at any point.

how good can the last weekend of the season be?

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/team-entropy-2018-your-introduction-to-chaos/

Ozzie Albies' only enemy in baseball is his own helmet.

That is a very Todd Frazier play. He seems to have a knack for the weird one. I saw him hit a one armed home run off of Jamie Moyers.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2018/09/06/detroit-tigers-mario-impemba-rod-allen/1217312002/

Fox Sports Detroit continued searching for answers into a physical altercation between Detroit Tigers TV broadcasters Mario Impemba and Rod Allen on Thursday afternoon, conducting meetings with both men involved.

The pair was separated following Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox and sent home to Detroit after an incident described as “severe” by one person who was present.

i know which broadcast i'm going to listen to tonight during the STL/DET game!

They have the rest of the year off.

Michael Moore and Tom Selleck will be filling in.

as amazing as that sounds, i think i'm going to go see yojimbo instead

Rockies vs Dodgers series should be a good one.

The Rays are having an interesting year in that they traded or sold off almost all their "name" players, yet could easily/accidentally win 90 games and still miss the postseason by a mile.

gabe kapler is doing gabe kapler things with 39 players on his roster

pinch-running in the fourth!
pulling his starter with one out in the fifth, then using three relievers (so far) to get out of the inning!

well, his playoff odds are down to 14% (Fangraphs). Time to pull out all the stops.

i like this guy

The absolute unit that could. pic.twitter.com/r2a5uj9E7o

— MLB (@MLB) September 13, 2018

i don't know much about him, but his plate discipline is weird! for the last 5 years running he's struck out less than 5% of the time and walked less than 5% of the time.

Willians Astudillo

i don't follow the twins closely, but they currently have two of the top ten prospects, plus this guy. let's go twins!!

Astudillo is a folk hero in the EW circles

rightly so...

FG has the Red Sox WS odds at 16.4%, while the Astros are at 23.7%. How does that make sense? Aren't the Sox a better team?

definitely the better team. that's odd. also, just yesterday on the radio (just a little sports round-up segment on chicago NPR) they were saying that the Red Sox's odds to win the WS were > 25%? maybe half the red sox got injured this morning

yea 538 has it as 28% Sox, 25% Astros. that's uh...a pretty significant difference. I think FG's methodology is more sophisticated than 538s, which IIRC is based almost entirely on ELO.

could it be based on match-ups in the first round

like houston actually has it easier by playing cleveland, while boston has to play the a's or yankees?

that's how it works, right?

Boston has the better record, wouldn't they be playing Cleveland? or does the #1 seed play the wild-card winner every time? that seems a little unfair since the wild-card winner is likely to have a better record than the #3 division winner

plus the a’s/yankees will presumably have burnt their best starter before facing the sox

tbf i’m not sure the a’s even have any starters left

yeah idk how that factors into the playoff calculations. for example, if the Brewers get the wildcard, I'm assuming their starter is going 3 innings max. if they win whoever plays them in the divisional round is definitely gonna be at an advantage.

The Astros have a better run differential than the Red Sox, so the simulations probably see them as even despite the differences in team wins. And with both wild card teams being better than the Indians, the Astros should definitely be big favorites to reach the WS again.

The Astros are kind of underrated now because they won last year (winning the first time is a great story, winning the second time doesn't have any broad appeal so people don't talk about them as much) and don't have a clear MVP favourite.

Red Sox are also something like 20-X vs the Orioles where X is an interger >0 but <10 and Orioles /= a major league team

14-2

and in those games chris davis is 5-for-50 with 29 K

Boston is having a heck of a year and their lineup is really great but in a short series, I think Houston's starting pitching makes it a pick em.

Between Porcello, Price and Rodriquez, one of them will have to step up with Sale. Cole, Kuchel and Morton are a much stronger 2 through 4 in the rotation. Houston has more bullpen depth than last year. Playoff baseball takes a lot of pitchers and the back end of Boston's bullpen is probably their weak spot on the roster.

Preference wise, I'd kind of like Oakland to keep hot and make a run. I'd have no issue with Cleveland winning it all, but it would be a fluky run if they won it this year.

Yankees lineup can be diffused by a strikeout pitcher, it's really not unlike the later Torre teams. Teams will get 14 K's and a double play in a pitcher's dual and beat them 3-1 a couple of times.

I wouldn't say fluky -- all of Cleveland's core players are as good or better than they were last year. They'll win 90+ games and they're currently seven games off their expected W-L record, so talent wise they're a 100 win team or close to it.

i think cleveland also benefits from playing a bunch of games in the worst division in baseball, though. second place twins are 67-80

42-22 in division, 28-35 against the rest of the american league

Trevor Bauer is also hurt.

astros looked just a little more strapped in during the last series against the sox. felt like playoff baseball and it felt like the astros were the big boys.