casimir

Well, the rookie team has the veteran manager and the veteran team has the rookie manager. Gotta factor that in, too.

I'm taking it one day at a time. Today is Monday. Game 1 is on Tuesday. I want to get through Monday before I worry about Tuesday.

Mario & Rod?

Just pointing it out in general.

I think the later games going to the NL are simply a matter of not knowing who some of those teams will be until the conclusion of Monday's doubleheader.

The Raiders should be sold out every game. There are only 8 or 9 regular season home games per season. Plus part of that season is a break for colder weather team fans. Plus there is the whole long weekend in Las Vegas thing that can be made around going to a Raider game for the opposing team’s fans.

Hey, are you gonna pass the prune juice or keep it all to yourself?

MTF isn’t a social media app, so doubtful they show up here.

He’s traditionally a slow starter. Aprils have easily been his worst career month before this season. It makes me wonder if his offseason regimen doesn’t allow him for successful starts to the season. And with how he never really clicked for an extended period this season, perhaps Father Time is suggesting something needs to change this offseason.

Might as well.

Who cares. Just win and advance. I don’t need TBS’ adulation.

Yeah, you bring up a point. I remember when Wenceel Perez was on the Have a Seat podcast, he mentioned his family had never seen him play in the states. There are lots of hoops to jump through for the international players. I don’t know what MLB or the individual teams can do to help with that.

It seemed like there were a fair number of players’ parents on the field after they clinched last night. That’s a fantastic touch. I don’t know if I’ve seen that before.

Not sure. I think given how the Tigers have gone about things the last month or two and the way that the off days come into play during the postseason, that 13th arm may not be necessary. The regular season has the burden of 6/7 games in a week, sometimes two weeks in a row without an off day. So, there’s daily fatigue management at play. Theatre does continue to an extent in the postseason, and there is the season long build up that keeps getting added on to. But the off days in between and during playoff rounds could be a factor in fatigue management.

Selfishly I am glad they clinched last night. I’m too busy today and would have had to record and watch after 10pm tonight. However, I was also busy last night, but wanted to record and watch after 10pm last night. Everything went to plan except for (1) a nephew texted me and (2) I forgot to set the recording. D’oh! Whatever. The main objective was accomplished. But, hey, might as well win today, right?

Ibanez has been struggling. But as you mention, he has the defensive ability over Malloy. And I don’t think Malloy has really been used so much lately that he could be considered much of an offensive upgrade over Ibanez given their track records beyond lately. So, it seems to be it’d be Ibanez over Malloy on the roster. The only aspect that I think could give Malloy an edge over Ibanez is if there were a way for Malloy’s plate discipline to create enough of an advantage over Ibanez that it significantly swings the pendulum in his direction. It’s just hard to see that delta at this point. Malloy’s ticket to the playoff roster is via injury or 14 position players. I think we see the latter in round one for sure.

I really don’t care who they oppose. It’s the playoffs. Hinch has been managing like it’s the playoffs and the roster has been assimilated to it. So let’s go. Bring it on.

That’s probably so. And that spot might change from series to series depending upon usage/availability. I think they can take the extra bat with the off days built into each series.

The Mountain West is looking at Toledo and Northen Illinois? Well, I guess if Cal & Stanford are in the Atlantic Coast Conference, why not? It ain’t Ohio State & Michigan, and I’m biased because of where I grew up and got my degree from, but splitting up Toledo and Bowling Green would suck.

12 pitchers for a 3 game series. Assuming Skubal eats 6 or 7 on Tuesday, that’s 21 or 20 innings for 11 other pitchers. They can take the extra position player for PHing duties, and that 14th bat is likely Mallloy. Maeda is off of the roster. The other arm is going to be an interesting call. Maybe I’m not thinking it through, but a candidate doesn’t seem all that apparent.

Never a doubt.

It was a wise choice to not wear them.

Should be interesting to see how it works out. Heck, I’m not sold that they’ll make it to Las Vegas to begin with. I have a suspicion that falls through and the Athletics end up in Nashville. I heard a theory this morning that if ownership changes hands and if there’s some turnover in Oakland politics, there’s now a situation to tear down the old dump and replace it on the spot. I’m not sure that’s likely at all, but who knows how this will all shake out.

I look at Quatraro and Vogt as the front runners. Now, I base that a bit on last season and expectations for this season. Maybe last season shouldn’t factor in because teams have a chance to alter their situation during the off-season. But as far as expectations, both have had to have gone over their expected records as of Opening Day. Hinch and Espada kind of suffer from the same issue, and that is the paltry start to their seasons. But I think Detroit’s second half is easily worthy of 3rd place over Espada.

And if the Tigers hadn’t payed well while Minnesota and Kansas City came back to earth, the topic would be about why didn’t Scott Harris bolster the club for the second half. Playoff berths are given out based on the number of wins/losses, not when or how they occurred. As long as Detroit has a record sufficient enough to make the playoffs, I don’t really care what the other 29 teams did or how they did it.