casimir

So, given those storylines, what to do with Malloy?

Is there some truth to this? That's the number I kind of use as a barometer when looking at records and "tiering" teams.

I think it turned gray because of all the gray matter activity going on underneath of it. You think that thing is bad, you ought to see my yard work hat. I think I've had thing since before Y2K.

I'd go one further. 1 league of 4 geographical divisions with 8 teams each when they expand. And then the playoff bracket is lined up 1 through 12 (or 16 is probably inevitable) according to winning percentage. So this offseason would have been Atlanta at 1, Baltimore at 2, Los Angeles at 3, Tampa at 4, etc, etc.

I think it was time for a new hat.

One bad year and one good year is much better than the return on Baez.

He’s droppin’ knowledge, yo.

I don’t think anyone expected any team to sign 2 of the 6 available and more sought after SSs that offseason (counting Semien as a SS). Not only did the Rangers land 2, but without looking to confirm, I’d suspect they’ve provided the best returns so far.

Oh for crying out loud….. Why would we guess what happened before will happen again?

Why should it be assumed that what occurred under a different owner & GM/president would occur again now with the current owner & president?

They can kick the tires on Soto now, but he's a free agent after next season. I know in theory they could lock him up before next offseason, but he's a Boras client, so that seems unlikely.

That's a great point.

New team? But he likes being in Detroit....

This is the way to improve the offense this offseason.

Well, I don't agree with him about the emphasis for going undefeated in the future. The playoffs will expand and there won't be 12 undefeated teams. There will still be debates about who lost to who, who beat who, etc in order to seed teams and fill out the wild cards. So scheduling will matter in terms of who played whom, whether its in conference or out of conference.

Baltimore's current roster has one non arbitration contract for next season. James McCann is signed through 2024 at just over $12M. Everybody else is a free agent (Aaron Hicks, Kyle Gibson, Adam Frazier, Jack Flaherty) or in arbitration or pre arbitration. They could use some pitching help, and that's what is available in free agency this offseason.

Are the regular season votes in yet? Did Bochy steal some manager of the year votes from Hyde?

We'll see if they keep them on the schedule. They'll do what they need to in order to keep Notre Dame on there, can't debate that. I hadn't looked at their updated B10 schedule with the new teams rolled in. Michigan hosts USC and Oregon and travels to Ohio State and Washington next year. That's pretty good. So shame on me for not looking at that.

The team that he may be referencing could be Indiana. They recently bought out a 3 game series with Louisville and are rumored to be looking at FCS opponents. I know some around here might think it’s Michigan, but they never schedule anyone of substance anyway, so they wouldn’t need to buy anyone out.

You should’of watched him more against the Tigers. He allowed only 4 runs in 15 innings this season. Or, I guess maybe you did watch plenty and the offense flexed it’s muscles for you vs Maeda?

In back to back posts: Love it. Hate it.

I agree, the number of playoff teams isn't going to be reduced. At the very least, great teams are not being excluded these days. so that's good. The 1993 Giants won 103 games but finished a game behind Atlanta. Philly won the East with 97 wins. 103-59 is a pretty darn good season. San Francisco got screwed twice by geography that season. (1) By being the second best record in the West. (2) Atlanta ain't even a western city!

I would like to see more research on it (if its available), but I suspect there's something to baseball that suggests the rust vs rest is bad for a resting team. The regular season is a day-to-day thing. I understand it cannot be replicated exactly in the playoffs. Travel days which are also a built in make up day, I get that. But some teams had 5 off days, 1 game day, an off day, a game day, an off day,.... That's 2 games played in over a week. That ain't baseball. So, something needs to be done for that. With tiebreakers in use for postseason participation rather than game 163, playoffs start on Tuesday for everybody. The scheduling for the first round, as is with byes involved, is fine. Travel day on Friday. The next round should start for everybody on Saturday and no more off days until a series changes locations. Broadcasting shouldn't be an issue. Don't worry about college football or the NFL. TBS/TNT aren't covering those, utilize those channels, stream, do whatever to push the product along the lines of a normal baseball calendar that is conducive to the participating teams. Or maybe they just need to go back down to 4 teams per league and everybody starts playing on day 1. Its probably more likely to go from 6 to 8, especially after they expand. Fine, I don't like 8, but its probably better that way rather than having byes in baseball. Playoff qualification and seeding should be done according to regular season record rather than divisions/geography. Reseed with each successive round. You want the regular season to mean something? If a division "winner" doesn't have a record that qualifies for the top 4 or 6 or 8 or whatever the playoff field is in a league, then they don't qualify. Sorry, best records should be the resume.

Of course we're going to feel differently about the Tigers beating the Yankees in the playoffs. We're Tiger fans and the opposition was the Yankees. But take away those prejudices and look at the differences in the regular season records of those 3 series vs the current Diamondbacks vs Dodgers 16 game split. In 2006 the Yankees were only 2 games better than the Tigers during the regular season. Same difference in 2011. The divide was 7 games in 2012. It ain't the same conversation.

Well, that was a fun game ending double play.