MLB 2024

[Mike Honcho 5,250]

 

Long winded way of saying I focked up and coached according to Bill James rather than watching the game.  In the previous two innings he threw a total of 17 pitches!  Peralta was going to be facing the 7-8-9 guys for only the 2nd time. Just

[supermike80 1,875]

LETSSSSSSSS GOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[cmh6476 1,023]

[cmh6476 1,023]

Baltimore must hate KC

[cmh6476 1,023]

Also 3 of 4 teams left from the central on the al side, yet out only happened because white Sox

[Hardcore troubadour 15,199]

20 hours ago, cmh6476 said:

Says the guy whose team who's in because they have 8 guys who can hit 500 foot bombs with a short porch in right to take advantage of. 

Did I say the Yankees have top pitching? I was mocking you for pointing out that good teams”seem” to go far because of pitching.  That’s not a revelation numbnuts. I look forward to more basic analysis from you throughout the playoffs. 

[supermike80 1,875]

1 hour ago, cmh6476 said:

Baltimore must hate KC

Didnt even sell out!

The 2 games in Detroit, 1 if necessary,  sold out in two hours.

Fock them.  If their fans dont care they deserved to lose.

 

[cmh6476 1,023]

20 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

Did I say the Yankees have top pitching? I was mocking you for pointing out that good teams”seem” to go far because of pitching.  That’s not a revelation numbnuts. I look forward to more basic analysis from you throughout the playoffs. 

I could bore you all with a really detailed and fair analysis of the royals.   But no one cares and will just say I talk too much about my own team.   So I'll spare you all and just say fock the Yankees

[Mookz 1,341]

1 hour ago, cmh6476 said:

See that?

[supermike80 1,875]

9 minutes ago, cmh6476 said:

I could bore you all 

This!

[cmh6476 1,023]

31 minutes ago, Mookz said:

See that?

Landed just in time to get it on my phone on the tarmac, still on the phone on Bluetooth for the half hour car ride home, then phone on the bleachers at my daughters high school volleyball game, then finally in the living room with my son for the last inning and a half. 

 

Oh, and I went out and grabbed my own postseason hoodie and the son a new cap

[cmh6476 1,023]

28 minutes ago, supermike80 said:

This!

I really liked this place in our early days because of the football insight (and other sports) through fandom.  To me instead of it being dull and redundant it made me appreciate other fan bases and learn more about other teams.

I don't have the bandwidth or capacity to follow all the other mlb or nfl or ncaa teams.   But when my team plays it goes in my calendar (literally) and i watch most if not all their games so I have a better understanding of their strengths and where they are susceptible that others could glean from. But the only time I really see other teams, is when they play my team and most of the time (unless it's a divisional rival) it's often few and far between. 

 

[Mookz 1,341]

7 minutes ago, cmh6476 said:

Landed just in time to get it on my phone on the tarmac, still on the phone on Bluetooth for the half hour car ride home, then phone on the bleachers at my daughters high school volleyball game, then finally in the living room with my son for the last inning and a half. 

 

Oh, and I went out and grabbed my on postseason hoodie and the son a new cap

Well, congrats, and may you guys go all the way now.

 

[Mike Honcho 5,250]

Brewers pull it out with 3 runs in the 8th to get  a 5-3 win.  Need to do it again now.   Whew...

[cmh6476 1,023]

What are your guys' thoughts on these early wild card start times? Made it a pain in the ass for a lot of people who didn't have a lot of time to plan for work purposes, I'm assuming. 

[Hardcore troubadour 15,199]

8 minutes ago, cmh6476 said:

What are your guys' thoughts on these early wild card start times? Made it a pain in the ass for a lot of people who didn't have a lot of time to plan for work purposes, I'm assuming. 

They do it every year. 

[cmh6476 1,023]

1 minute ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

They do it every year. 

Well I think it's dumb.   Especially for Braves and Mets not knowing till late the day before.   That screws a ton of people. 

[Gepetto 1,340]

I just realized I don't have to worry about a 3 pm game for the Royals tomorrow when I'm stuck at work until 4:30 or after. Nice 2 game sweep!

[cmh6476 1,023]

Braves making it interesting

[supermike80 1,875]

9 hours ago, cmh6476 said:

I really liked this place in our early days because of the football insight (and other sports) through fandom.  To me instead of it being dull and redundant it made me appreciate other fan bases and learn more about other teams.

I don't have the bandwidth or capacity to follow all the other mlb or nfl or ncaa teams.   But when my team plays it goes in my calendar (literally) and i watch most if not all their games so I have a better understanding of their strengths and where they are susceptible that others could glean from. But the only time I really see other teams, is when they play my team and most of the time (unless it's a divisional rival) it's often few and far between. 

 

Ha.  Dude I'm just ribbing you.   You're all good.  It's nice to NOT have to talk about politics all day.   Keep doing what you do.

[posty 2,663]

21 minutes ago, supermike80 said:

Ha.  Dude I'm just ribbing you.   You're all good.  It's nice to NOT have to talk about politics all day.   Keep doing what you do.

No don’t say that…. Do we really need more talk about Kansas City sports?  No we don’t…

[supermike80 1,875]

50 minutes ago, posty said:

No don’t say that…. Do we really need more talk about Kansas City sports?  No we don’t…

Better than more talk about Jan 6th..the debates...etc etc etc....

[Sean Mooney 1,963]

Good to see the Mets have to play another day and be cooled off a little bit. Fun game in San Diego last night. Good to see the Astros bounced, and man- congrats to KC but Baltimore is setting themselves up to be a perennial underachiever come playoff time. 5 straight playoff losses, including 4 at home.

[cmh6476 1,023]

1 hour ago, supermike80 said:

Ha.  Dude I'm just ribbing you.   You're all good.  It's nice to NOT have to talk about politics all day.   Keep doing what you do.

It's not you that keeps bringing it up

[edjr 6,579]

 

LETS GO ASTROS!!

[cmh6476 1,023]

I'm going to say fock it and ignore those saying they don't want to hear more about the Royals.  Just because maybe HT or others who are rooting for the Yankees might be interested in some additional insight heading into the series.  Plus, this is an MLB thread and there's only a handful of teams still playing

The Yankees have much bigger names, so most of us know or have heard of Judge and Soto and Gerrit Cole, but honestly other than knowing the lineup top to bottom is probably the most stacked in the league, I don't know much about the Yankees either and would be interested in reading what those who do really perceive their strengths and weaknesses to be.

For the Royals, I think everybody at this point knows Bobby Witt, Jr. but may not know a lot about the rest of the team.

Starting Pitching

The Royals being where they are, in my opinion, is a result of the starting pitching more than anything else.  Seth Lugo's name was in the running for Cy Young for most of the year, Cole Ragans has been a tremendous asset and Michael Wacha has pitched well all year.  Lugo had an ERA of under 2 for the first two months of the year, where i think 11 of his 12 starts were quality starts.  Since he hadn't been a starter for a full season there were questions about his durability, and his ERA did elevate in July and August but 3 of his 4 starts were quality starts in September.  He pitched extremely well last night, but I'm guessing we see Ragans and Wacha for two starts if the series went to five games, and Lugo will only get one.  The Yankess are the toughest out for any starting pitcher I think, but at his best he keeps hitter guessing when he's using about 12 different pitches.

Wacha is kind of the opposite, where his ERA the first two months was over 4, but for July through September his ERA stayed closer to 3.  He finished the season really strong with a 2.60 ERA in September although he didn't get get past five innings in most of those starts.  I assume he'll get game 1 since he didn't pitch in the wild card series.  Ragans has probably been the most consistent, even as well as those other two had pitched.  He had a 1.08 ERA in September through 4 starts going 6 or 7 innings in each, giving up 14 hits on 25 innings with only 3 runs allowed.  

This 3-man rotation is the biggest reason I have a lot of hope going into the divisional series.  The Yankees may very well be the toughest out for the Royals to make it back to the World Series, but if there's a team that's capable of doing it, I feel like it can be Kansas City.

Relief Pitching

The bullpen wasn't very good early in the season, and has obviously been the weakest link.  They've been frustrating, have blown leads and couldn't find ways to close out several games.

Opening day roster included: Will Smith, Chris Stratton, Nick Anderson, John Schrieber, Matt Sauer, James McArthur, Angel Zerpa and Jordan Lyles

Wild Card roster included: Angel Zerpa, John Schrieber (the only two relievers from the opening day roster), Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Sam Long, Daniel Lynch, Lucas Erceg and Michael Lorenzen

And the results, for the Royals bullpen in September they had:

ERA: 2.77 (5th)

FIP: 2.73 (2nd)

K%: 29.4% (4th)

BB%: 7.7% (6th)

GB%: 45.9% (12th)

Granted, that's not facing the Yankees every day but it's still a pretty damn impressive turnaround from where they came from.  Erceg and Lorenzen have been tremendous additions, calling up Bubic and Lynch from the minors and moving them from starters to relievers has served the team well, and moving Singer to the pen adds yet another arm.

Another thing I noticed watching the series against the Orioles was how masterfully Quantraro used his bullpen.  They are using tons of analytics and data to select the best matchups to put them in a position to win.  Something the last manager we had to endure (Mike Matheny) would have never done for us.  They are looking at the types of pitches their opponents have the most success with  (or lack thereof) and it's really worked well.  The results were that the Orioles scored 1 run in 2 games.  That's pretty damn impressive.

Position Players

Bobby Witt, Jr.  That's all I really need to say about him.  Getting Vinnie back in under five weeks is huge, provides some protection in the lineup behind Bobby and plays well with the short right field of Yankee Stadium.  Salvy is still the man, although I wish he wouldn't chase so many bad pitches.  He still has to have the highest batting percentage swinging at pitches more than a foot outside of the zone

The Royals have struggled with (an a key offseason priority will be) identifying a decent leadoff hitter.  Michael Massey, Maikel Garcia, Tommy Pham have just struggled to consistently get on base and provide an opportunity for the top three hitters to drive them in.

As you rounds out the roster there isn't a lot of star power, but the Royals have options to match up against righty/ lefty splits, and have players they can turn to for different situations late in the game.  If you want to DH Salvy you can put Fermin behind the plate.  If you want to DH Vinnie (might be highly likely as he's still going to be nursing his thumb) you can play Salvy or Gurriel at first.  You can play Garcia at second or third, and gives you flexibility with Massey (left handed bat) at second or DeJong (right handed bat) at third).  And you have some options in the outfield between Melendez, Pham, Renfroe and Isbel.  None of those dudes are going to set the world on fire, but they give you options.  And then you have Dairon Blanco in your back pocket, who seems to be our Jarrod Dyson of the team and can basically swipe a bag at will.

History

Win, lose, and I guess you can't draw, but whatever happens this has been a fun season to follow, and anything from this point is just gravy.  This has been awesome as a fan, and I have tickets for both Wednesday and Thursday games nest week and will likely be in attendance for both if they both end up taking place.  The Royals and Yankees have quite the postseason history going, and I'm looking forward to seeing it continue next week

NSFW language:

 

 

[MikeMatt 49]

20 hours ago, cmh6476 said:

Well I think it's dumb.   Especially for Braves and Mets not knowing till late the day before.   That screws a ton of people. 

Yeah I didn’t know this but I heard on the radio this morning if Braves won last night Mets game was goin to be a 3:00 start. F that. 

 

ETA I typed this early this morning and never hit send. 
 

New post added. 
 

I missed the first inning. I thought the Mets/Brewers were an 8:38 start !!

[posty 2,663]

4 minutes ago, MikeMatt said:

Yeah I didn’t know this but I heard on the radio this morning if Braves won last night Mets game was goin to be a 3:00 start. F that.

That is because the Braves/Padres are in Pacific Time…. Also you will need to expect the Mets having early games in the division series as well with the Dodgers/Padres/Yankees being around…

[Hardcore troubadour 15,199]

Miracle Mets. Can’t kill em

[cmh6476 1,023]

My wife wants to do it but I told her to wait till this game is over

[MikeMatt 49]

18 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

Miracle Mets. Can’t kill em

Fun game. Big Pete ! (The other Big Pete)

[Hardcore troubadour 15,199]

2 minutes ago, MikeMatt said:

Fun game. Big Pete ! (The other Big Pete)

A  New York City baseball weekend.  Been a while. 

[Reality 3,121]

Life is good. LFGM. OMG.

[MikeMatt 49]

Oh baby !

[Mike Honcho 5,250]

On 9/30/2024 at 5:52 PM, Mike Honcho said:

As a Brewer fan, I want them to lose and come to Milwaukee.  Brewers went 5-1 against them this year and have won something like 20 out of last 24 games against NYM at home.

Of course, now that I've said that outloud, it will probably happen and the Crew will be eliminated in two. 

Baseball jinxes are real.   

Gotta admit, this year was a little harder than most ,3 outs away from advancing.  

[cmh6476 1,023]

12 minutes ago, Mike Honcho said:

Baseball jinxes are real.   

Gotta admit, this year was a little harder than most ,3 outs away from advancing.  

Yeah I used to wish we had this team, or want to play that team... when Trent Green, Alex Smith etc were my teams qb.  Now we have mahomes and I don't care or think about who is next.   In my scenario, my outlook changed where I want the best at their best, because I know with Mahomes we have a good chance. 

I'm the same with baseball now.   I know matchups favor certain teams, ballpark play better with certain lineups and pitching options.   But I don't care.   Bring on the Yankees and let's take our shot

[edjr 6,579]

10 hours ago, Reality said:

Life is good. LFGM. OMG.

Any truth to the rumor Michael Cuddyer met with Pete Alonso before the 9th inning at bat?

[supermike80 1,875]

59 minutes ago, cmh6476 said:

Yeah I used to wish we had this team, or want to play that team... when Trent Green, Alex Smith etc were my teams qb.  Now we have mahomes and I don't care or think about who is next.   In my scenario, my outlook changed where I want the best at their best, because I know with Mahomes we have a good chance. 

I'm the same with baseball now.   I know matchups favor certain teams, ballpark play better with certain lineups and pitching options.   But I don't care.   Bring on the Yankees and let's take our shot

Yankees are stacked.  Good hitting from bof sidez, switch hitters...They are dangerous.  That said..beat them  I hate the Yankees.

Oh and Tigers in 4.  Which is good cause I'm going to game 4!

[HellToupee 1,675]

this round 
 

Guardians

Royals

Phillies

Padres

 

Padres are winning the whole thing

[supermike80 1,875]

48 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

this round 
 

Guardians

Royals

Phillies

Padres

 

Padres are winning the whole thing

Mine

Tigers

Yankees

Phillies

Dodgers

 

Yankees win it all